Mental health

Mental health and emotional wellbeing

In this section, you can find information about where to get help and advice around mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Experiencing issues around mental health can happen to anyone at any time and can range from not quite feeling yourself, through to being really anxious, depressed or experiencing a crisis.

A change in personal circumstances or experiencing loneliness and isolation can sometimes have quite an impact on someone’s mental wellbeing.

Around 1 in 6 children experience a mental health problem at some time in their childhood. When this happens, it can be difficult for them to make and keep friends, manage at school and feel good about themselves. It can also be bewildering for their families to know how to help them.

For some children and young people, these problems will pass over time, but others may need a bit of extra support to help them get back on track.  

When you are living with a metal health problem, or supporting someone who is, having access to the right information is vital. Help and support is at hand and is explained in this section.

Local and national links are shown below.  Many of these will show how you can get in touch if you need to talk to someone.

Remember that you can also call into one of the Community Lounges or Family Hubs who will try to help you or put you in touch with the right organisation.

Links to local organisations in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire

National Links and resources

Apps & websites

  • CALM - App for Mindfulness and Meditation. (Available on iOS, Android & Web)
  • Breathe2Relax - The relaxation app trains you on the “belly breathing” technique that has proven benefits for your overall mental health. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • Stress Check by Azumio - This app takes you on a deep breathing exercise to promote calmness and can bring your heart rate down in five minutes. The app provides instant feedback with breath and pulse monitoring and tracks long-term progress. (Available on Android)
  • Happify - The Happify app is a way to make a game of all the positive psychology tricks you know might work, but make you feel kind of silly when you actually do them. You'll start by taking a quick test that assesses the areas of happiness you should work on. Then, you're presented with a few "tracks" that can help get you to your goals. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • SAMAPP: APPS FOR ANXIETY - SAM is an application to help you understand and manage anxiety. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • PACIFICA - Daily tools for stress, anxiety, and depression alongside a supportive community. Based on cognitive behavioural therapy & mindfulness meditation. (Available on iOS, Android & Web)
  • Thrive: Feel Stress Free - When you log in it gives you different tips to help you relieve stress/anxiety. There are tabs for meditation, deep relaxation, self-hypnosis, and more. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • BASE - An app designed to help manage stress and anxiety. By learning more about how and why we experience anxiety at different times and in different situations we can be less fearful. (Available on Android)
  • Smiling Mind - Trying to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life? This app can help you launch into a regular practice of mindfulness meditations. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • Wysa Happiness Chabot - Wysa helps to build emotional resilience by talking to you about your situation. Over 60 psychologists and 10,000 users have provided specific inputs to shape how Wysa helps them. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • I love Hue - When you feel like you have no control, this app can help sooth you by creating simple visual harmonies from mosaic tiles. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • Anxious Minds - Anxious minds are a charity that was set up by sufferers of anxiety and depression, to provide free support to all suffers of anxiety and depression. (Available on Android)
  • Worry Watch - This journaling tool has a simple user interface where users can log instances of worry, fear, and anxiety. They can also add the outcome of each situation, which provides a comparison between expectation and reality that helps reduce anxiety over time. (Available on iOS)
  • What’s Up? Anxiety App - This app uses CBT and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • WELLMIND - WellMind is your free NHS mental health and wellbeing app designed to help you with stress, anxiety and depression. The app includes advice, tips and tools to improve your mental health and boost your wellbeing. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • Cove - Free, personal music journal to help you with your emotional and mental health. Trusted by the NHS. (Available on iOS)
  • Reflectly - A personal journal and diary driven by AI to enable you to deal with negative thoughts, make positivity louder and to teach you about the science of well-being. (Available on iOS and Android)
  • Happy not perfect - Backed by science, designed for you, Happy Not Perfect is your go-to place for everything you need to look after your mind in a fun new way. (Available on iOS and Android)

Helplines

Toolkit

Mental Health problems are common. Most people will suffer them at some point in their lives. They can happen as a result of stresses or can occur spontaneously, without cause. There is also information under specific issues such as depression, anxiety or emotional dysregulation. These links and resources may be most useful when you are not yet sure what the issue is.

Tools

Information for professionals