At St Francis Xavier’s College, our belief is that students should flourish academically and personally.  We take great pride in our Mission of educating students for ‘Life in all its fullness’. This includes promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for all of our community both adults and children.   We address this in various ways; our Mission program, CPD and INSET, during form time PSHCE, generally in our pastoral support and during assemblies.

We are aware that the pressures of modern day life can take their toll on all of us at times and that being open and honest about our feelings can help.  We encourage open discussion and our staff have an interest in signposting, listening and offering advice to students and each other.

We run an initiative called SFXtra Help which includes training staff to be upskilled in mental health issues and in being able to offer the right support at the right times to those who need it.

However if you feel that a concern is pressing you can also make use of the following resources:

If you are in crisis now and need urgent help

If you don’t feel you can keep yourself safe right now, seek immediate help:

If you need urgent support but don’t want to go to A&E, you could:

  • call Samaritans on freephone 116 123 – they’re always open and are there to listen
  • contact your GP surgery and ask for an emergency appointment
  • contact NHS 111 (England)
  • contact your local crisis team (CRHT), if you’re under their care

You can also make use of the school drive which holds lots of information:

Name Type Date added

Mental Health and Wellbeing Signposting

Charity providing support if you have been diagnosed with an anxiety condition.

Phone: 03444 775 774 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm)

Website: www.anxietyuk.org.uk

A charity helping people living with manic depression or bipolar disorder.

Website: www.bipolaruk.org.uk

CALM is the Campaign Against Living Miserably, for men aged 15 to 35.

Phone: 0800 58 58 58 (daily, 5pm to midnight)

Website: www.thecalmzone.net

XenZone is a provider of online mental health services for children, young people and adults. Kooth, from XenZone, is an online counselling and emotional well-being platform for children and young people, accessible through mobile, tablet and desktop and free at the point of use.

Website:www.kooth.com/

24/7 stress support for men by text, chat and email.

Website: www.menshealthforum.org.uk

Provides information and support for anyone with mental health problems or learning disabilities.

Website: www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Promotes the views and needs of people with mental health problems.

Phone: 0300 123 3393 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm)

Website: www.mind.org.uk

Voluntary charity offering support for sufferers of panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Offers a course to help overcome your phobia or OCD.

Phone: 0844 967 4848 (daily, 10am to 10pm)

Website: www.nopanic.org.uk

Support for people with OCD. Includes information on treatment and online resources.

Phone: 0845 390 6232 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm)

Website: www.ocdaction.org.uk

A charity run by people with OCD, for people with OCD. Includes facts, news and treatments.

Phone: 0845 120 3778 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)

Website: www.ocduk.org

Young suicide prevention society.

Phone: HOPElineUK 0800 068 4141 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm and 7pm to 10pm, and 2pm to 5pm on weekends)

Website: www.papyrus-uk.org

Support and advice for people living with mental illness.

Phone: 0300 5000 927 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm)

Website: www.rethink.org

Confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair.

Phone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline)

Website: www.samaritans.org.uk

Emotional support, information and guidance for people affected by mental illness, their families and carers.

SANEline: 0300 304 7000 (daily, 4.30pm to 10.30pm)

Textcare: comfort and care via text message, sent when the person needs it most: www.sane.org.uk/textcare

Peer support forum: www.sane.org.uk/supportforum

Website: www.sane.org.uk/support

Information on child and adolescent mental health. Services for parents and professionals.

Phone: Parents’ helpline 0808 802 5544 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm)

Website: www.youngminds.org.uk

Phone: 0845 769 7555 (24-hour helpline)

Website: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk

Phone: 0808 8020 133 (daily, 8am to midnight)

Website: www.begambleaware.org

Phone: 0300 999 1212 (daily, 10am to midnight)

Website: www.ukna.org

Phone: 0844 477 9400 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)

Website: www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk

Phone: 0808 801 0677 (adults) or 0808 801 0711 (for under-18s)

Website: www.b-eat.co.uk

Mental Health and Wellbeing Apps

Headspace Possibly one of the most popular apps for mindfulness. It offers 10 free sessions that you can use over and over. If you wish to continue and progress with your mindfulness practice there is a one-year membership for ÂŁ70, giving you access to hundreds of themed, guided meditations and mindfulness exercises although they often have price reduction offers.
Elefriends A great free app from Mind, the mental health charity. This app features a ‘news feed’ style interactive main page where you can comment, read, or share your own thoughts and feelings with other like-minded users. There is also a private message facility.
What’s Up? This free app is chock full of tools to enable you to manage anxiety and calm an anxious mind and body, as well as objective help and advice on subjects such as anger, depression, self-esteem and stress. There is also an area to keep track of moods and new habits as you make them.
Smiling Mind ‘Check in with yourself’ with this comprehensive app from Oz, which enables you to track your mood along with hundreds of targeted mindfulness practices for young and old alike. Oh yes, and it’s free!
MyPossibleSelf If interacting with humans is not your thing, MyPossibleSelf might be for you. Bloopy the assistant bot guides you through a free, and rather in depth eight week cognitive behavioral therapy based course. MyPossibleSelf offers the potential to help you work through your issues in the format of a text conversation.
Aura This AI driven app has the option to subscribe and unlock a wealth of personalised mindfulness exercises. From improving mood to lessening anxiety, Aura’s narrators have a dignified sense of calm and the app has an outstanding amount of choice in the paid version.
Calm Another great mindfulness app which you can access both paid and unpaid. A vast amount of exercises and options to choose from for all levels of ability. There is also a handy sound setting option where you can adjust the background volume or turn it off if you prefer.
MindShift CBT This app is aimed at Young adults, older teens or anyone new to managing their anxiety. Using a comprehensive mix of CBT tools and interventions to retrain the mind, there is also a space to log the new changes and to do behavioural and mind ‘experiments’
Catch it Endorsed by the NHS, this free app promises to be a helpfully concise addition to the mental health app scene. It gives the user the opportunity to log their mood, check the mood and ultimately change their mood. There are options for depression, anxiety, anger, relaxation, confusion and happiness using CBT.
Action For Happiness If you can’t commit to either the investment of time or cash, Action For Happiness may be for you. It offers a ‘newsfeed’ of positive affirmations, memes and scientifically proven small daily tasks to improve your mood and sense of well being. There is also a ‘comment’ section under each post to share your successes with other users!
Chill Panda A very gentle free app for everyone. The app focuses on a game in which you navigate a panda around a virtual world. The app uses your phone’s camera to take your heart rate, and with both breathing and yoga stretching and gentle exercise, this simple app really does live up to its name.