Pupils struggling with exam stress helped by NHS teams

NHS teams have been offering support to pupils in almost 600 hundred colleges and sixth form centres struggling with their mental health around exam season.

The clinicians are helping pupils by offering one-to-one support, workshops, as well as training for teachers on how to support struggling students.

More than 250,000 students aged 16-18 have received help for a range of issues from anxiety or sleep difficulties which can be exacerbated by exams, with GCSE exams starting this week and A Level exams the week after.

Parents and carers also receive NHS support to ensure young people receive consistent support both in and out of school.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health director, said: “Young people are facing more pressures than ever before; from social media to living through a once-in-a-generation pandemic.

“And we can really see that peaking at this time of year year, as exams season kicks off this week, but the NHS is here to help with hundreds of teams working in classrooms to offer specialist advice on how to manage stress and anxiety to hundreds of thousands of children taking exams.

“We know that adolescent is a crucial time of life with half of mental health disorders being present by the age of 14, so it is absolutely vital that our NHS teams are able to offer students easy access to support with the skills they learn helping them as they enter the workplace or head off to university.”