Teen Mental Health: quiet room

Earlier this year I was allocated a room for my team to use for student meetings when a little privacy was needed.  As it is in an out of the way corner of the college with no phone or computer, it was being underused for this purpose as we continued to work around each other in our shared office. I sometimes took a laptop and worked in there when I needed to get something finished without interruption, but otherwise it was nice little room that was being underutilised. We decided to give students who sometimes needed a quiet space access to the room. The art department gave us some beautiful pictures to hang in there to make it a nicer place to be in, and we created a mini leaflet library of Mental Health Foundation booklets and other signposting materials.

We haven’t widely advertised the availability of the ‘quiet room’ because we don’t want it to become a social space and want it to continue to be somewhere that students needing a bolt hole can use. This could be because they needed some time to collect their thoughts and emotions or reflect after their counselling session. Some students needed somewhere to go to recover from a panic attack or sometimes they just needed a little privacy to cope with their challenges they were facing in life whilst they tried to complete college work.

The college has two reflection rooms (one male and one female) which are well used where our Muslim students and staff go to pray. But we are now looking to create another space that students can use next year during Ramadan where they can take a nap, or just have a few moments between lessons…. watch this space.

Eid Mubarak