Feb 2013 Speaker - Amanda Langford from Blue Smile fb brief Club Council

Amanda Langford from the charity Blue Smile will talk to us on the subject 'How children's mental health problems impact on the community'.

She has had a variety of roles in her life including publishing immediately after university, with a local firm, producing an odd mixture of books for the City and sponsored cook books.  One pretty memorable one was 'The Mars Bar Book of Dieting'. She taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey for some years, while also running a youth counselling service in the local community.  This early experience of supporting troubled children showed her that they often cannot find the words to communicate their difficulties.She then came back to Cambridge and set up a business to fit in with the needs of her children before training as a Child Psychotherapist.  As a result of working in this capacity in different schools she realised that there was a significant gap in local provision for children struggling with early mental health problems and so set up Blue Smile.'

Blue Smile is a Cambridgeshire children's charity which provides counselling and support in schools to help children fulfil their true potential and have happier childhoods. It can quite simply be life-changing. Three children in every UK class are now likely to have a mental health difficulty - and the problem is growing. It's also a little known fact that children's well-being in parts of Cambridgeshire is amongst the very worst in the country. Without specialist support, vulnerable children can go on to develop mental illnesses and anti-social behaviours, which puts huge pressures on local services and costs their community dear.

For more info look at their website.

Fundraising event 22Jan2013.