If you’re aged 11-19 you can text a school nurse to get confidential health and wellbeing advice about:
- Anxiety
- Healthy lifestyles
- Relationships
- Sleeping
- Friendships
- Nutrition and diet
- Healthy eating
- Bullying
- Exam stress
- Mental wellbeing
- Anger management
- Feelings and emotions
- Body image
- Self-harm
- Exercise
- Puberty
- Stress
- Sexual health
- Alcohol
It’s up to you if you want to give your name. You can even choose to text a School Nurse anonymously.
The School Nursing Team is here for you and will provide you confidential support and advice – there are lots of things they can help with.
ChatHealth in Knowsley is also available for young people aged19 -25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
How ChatHealth works
ChatHealth will be available between 9.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday (including school holidays and excluding bank holidays) and will be accessed by texting on of the numbers below.
Our School Nurse Team aims to reply to you within one working day and you should get an immediate bounce-back to confirm we’ve received your text.
Texts will not be seen outside of normal working hours (Mon – Fri, 9.00am – 5.00pm).
If you need help before you hear back from us, please contact a member of school staff or your doctor.
ChatHealth is not an emergency service. In an emergency visit A&E or call 999.
Our text number does not receive voice calls or MMS picture messages.
You can prevent our School Nursing Team from sending messages to you by texting STOP to our number.
Please respect your schools mobile phone policy.
Messages are charged at your usual rate
Texting a School Nurse
Whatever your question, send a text to our team, Monday – Friday, 9.00am – 5.00pm:
- Cheshire East – 07507 329908
- Wirral – 07480 635538
- St Helens – 07312 263250
- Knowsley – 07312 263254 – ChatHealth in Knowsley is also available for young people aged19 -25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Confidentiality
Unless you give permission, we will not pass on anything you say to anyone else, like parents, teachers, or other students – except in extreme circumstances like if the health, safety or welfare of you or someone else who is at significant risk.
If we did need to tell someone about something you had told us, we would always try to speak with you first. For our safety and yours we hold information that you tell us on electronic records that can be seen by other healthcare professionals who all follow the same confidentiality rules – this can include your doctor. Records are kept for future use.
ChatHealth is confidential, anonymous and non-judgemental.
FAQs
Q) Our school/college has a ‘no phones’ policy. Can we still use the service?”
A) Yes, our marketing materials encourage you to respect school phone use policies and many students use the service outside of school hours and lesson times.
Q) What ages does the service cater for?”
A) We are currently making the service available to all young people aged 11-19. This will involve making the service available in some areas where secondary education starts at Year 6.
Q) In what languages is the service available?
A) The service is available in English and work plans are in place to examine what needs to be done to improve access to school nursing by messaging for young people who don’t speak English as a first language.
Q) Is information stored?
A) All messages are securely recorded and can be seen by other healthcare staff who follow NHS confidentiality rules.
Q) Is the service free?
A) Yes, we provide the service free of charge. Any SMS messages sent whilst using the service may incur the usual network provider charges. Young people who download the ChatHealth smartphone app will be able to send instant messages within their existing data-plan at no additional cost.
Q) Is the service compatible with all mobile phones?
SMS text messages can be sent to the service from any kind of mobile phone which has sufficient credit and network signal. The ChatHealth smartphone app will soon be available to users of Apple iPhones and an equivalent app for Android devices is planned for delivery in 2018-19.
Q) Who provides the service?
A) The ChatHealth messaging service is provided by 0-19+ Health and Wellbeing Service (Cheshire East) 0-19 Health and Wellbeing Service (Wirral) and is a registered trademark of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust which is the operating body.
