A TRAFFORD school nurse has developed a handy resource to help children in the borough look after their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Lisa Webster, who works in Trafford School Nursing Service, part of Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, came up with the idea for a ‘Be Happy’ guide, which could be given out to pupils during school nurse drop-in sessions.

With the help of Pennine Care’s graphic design team, Lisa was able to transform her idea, which she initially thought up as part of her postgraduate child and adolescent mental health diploma, into a professionally designed and printed resource available to children in Trafford.

The hand-outs use the acronym ‘BE HAPPY’ to highlight seven key themes which promote emotional health and wellbeing for children and young people.

These stand for breakfast, enjoy, healthy, achieve, positive, praise and you, and on the back of each letter is a space for young people to jot down notes and ideas.

This can then be used, either with their school nurses or on their own, to collect some ideas of what they can do to help them feel better when they’re feeling down.

School nurse Lisa said: “At our drop-in sessions at schools across the area, similar themes around emotional health would crop up time and time again.

“So it made sense to come up with something which can start to address these areas, to help bring about improvements in the health and wellbeing of our young people.

“The material has been developed so it can be folded to fit in a blazer or coat pocket, so they can keep it with them throughout the day to use whenever they start to feel down.”

Along with this innovative resource, Lisa has previously written a book on childhood obesity, which helped her to achieve the Queen’s Nurse title.

The Be Happy guides can also be found at: www.fabnhsstuff.net/2016/05/04/happy-promoting-positive-health-well-children-young-people/