BEAM support and advise

About Beam

Shropshire Telford & Wrekin Beam, operated by The Children’s Society in partnership with Bee U, has been running since September 2017.  Beam is an emotional wellbeing drop-in for children and young people under 25.  Their service offers young people the opportunity talk to trained practitioners who can give practical support, advice and suggestions as to how they can manage their thoughts and feelings. 

They are a low-level, brief intervention emotional wellbeing service.  As such, they do not diagnose, assess or automatically make referrals to other organisations.

Beam – before lockdown

Prior to lockdown, the Beam service operated up to 5 face to face drop-in sessions a week at venues in Shrewsbury, Telford and Ludlow.  With no referral needed, their face to face drop-ins are an open-access service, so parents, carers and young people can just be signposted to us and attend the drop in session most convenient. 

Once registered, a young person will be allocated to the next available practitioner who will take the time to listen to whatever it is that they are struggling with.  They will offer support, and suggest strategies to help them with the issues that they face, whatever that may be.   They use a variety of methods to engage the young people we see including games and creative activities.  They will never pressurise a young person to speak to us: we work at their pace. 

Beam – changes to service due to lockdown

Beam is determined to continue to offer support to young people across Shropshire and Telford, and are offering phone support while the lockdown continues. 

This is open to young people who have visited Beam before, as well as any who would like to get some support who haven’t attended the face to face service.

They recognise that for some of the younger children, phone-based support may not be appropriate.  The team are able to offer support and resources to parents and carers to help them to support their children. 

Below is a list of information and links they have recently offered to help children during this difficult time.