Trusting Hands Gateshead
Trusting Hands Gateshead (THG) is a multidisciplinary team of mental health practitioners. Employed through Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), THG work collaboratively across Gateshead Children's Social Care services to support the coordination, integration and delivery of trauma-informed care.
The service name and description'Trusting Hands Gateshead: Strengthening connections through stories, safety, compassion and care' was developed following consultation with young people in Gateshead residential care homes, with the support of Gateshead Young Ambassadors. We thank them for their views and valued contributions.
The service aims to help systems understand and meet the emotional and mental health needs of the young person; provide an integrated approach to supporting vulnerable young people and their families; promote stability, resilience, and confidence in the system around a young person; enable young people with complex needs to thrive.
The service follows the six principles of NHS England's Framework for Integrated Care (Community), and supports the implementation of this trauma-informed model within Gateshead through:
- training (both workforce development and therapeutic parenting programmes)
- consultation, advice, and signposting
- 'Understanding the story' formulations
- speech, language and communication need clinics
- debrief and reflective practice space
- input to care team meetings
- multi-agency liaison
- scaffolding, collaborative working, and enabling interventions
- strategic influence and oversight
The team consists of highly skilled clinical psychologists, nurses, psychological therapists, social workers, speech and language therapists, and peer support workers with experience of working across a range of children's mental health services.