Social emotional and mental health (SEMH)

SEMH difficulties are one of the four broad areas of SEND. SEMH difficulties can manifest in many ways; social difficulties such as withdrawing or difficulty making or maintaining friendships, emotional difficulties such as depression or low mood, mental health difficulties such as eating disorders, self-harm or substance misuse and behavioural difficulties such as challenging, withdrawn or disruptive behaviours may all be examples of SEMH unmet needs.

‘Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.’ (Code of Practice, paragraph 6.32)

Below you will find links to learning and development sessions, resources, and recommended websites.

Course	Summary	Link
Exploring Learning Disabilities: Supporting Belonging	In this free course, Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging, you will hear from many different people about what it is like to have the label ‘learning disability’, and how it feels to support someone with a learning disability, as a family member, a friend, an advocate or a paid worker. These human stories will lead you into some of the complex moral, ethical and practical debates learning disability gives rise to.	Click here to enrol
Raising awareness of disabilities campaign	As part of work towards improving Wish 12, the Local SEND offer team are working to make Leeds a more inclusive city. They spoke to young people about what this means to them and a clear message was around raising awareness of disabilities, particularly hidden disabilities – where the disability may not be obvious just by looking at the person. This kickstarted an art project, asking young people “How can Leeds be more inclusive to those with hidden disabilities?”, so that children and young people are not feeling judged. Some of the young people created ‘spoken word’ pieces to express their thoughts and feelings. These have been recorded and can be heard in this video.	Click here to watch
SEND Youth Forum- Raising awareness of disabilities	A short video, produced by the Leeds SEND Youth Forum. The SEND Youth Council have worked together to create a booklet and video of various journeys and challenges of young people with SEND to help you help them. The resource is not just about knowing how you can support young people, but to understand how they might perceive and feel during these experiences.	Click here to watch