Life and growing up can be overwhelming for young people.
Growing up is not easy and it can be hard to cope with the stresses and strains of school, social media and families.
Child and Young People’s Mental Health Services, (sometimes known as CAMHS), support children and young people up to age 25 with their emotional and mental health and wellbeing.
When we talk about mental health, we mean how you feel and how you cope with the things going on in your life. This could be connected to anything from school, your friends or even your family life. If you feel you aren’t coping well with the ups and downs of life, it may be that you need some support to help you manage your feelings better.
If you do need help, we will work together with you and your family to decide what support you need to have good mental health and wellbeing. Our aim is to help young people get the support they need to tackle any problems early before they get worse, and to act quickly if they do.
How we can help
This can be a difficult time. For example, you may:
- feel sad or hopeless; like you do not want to be here any more
- have problems with your family, friends or at school
- hurt yourself or have thoughts about hurting yourself
- feel anxious and scared
- have problems with eating and food
- have trouble talking or sleeping
- hear voices or see things that worry you
- feel angry or are struggling to control your behaviour or temper
- find it hard to concentrate or get on with friends
- have to check or repeat things, or worry about germs
- do not like yourself or have low self confidence.
Our service is for common wellbeing or socially based worries.
We will usually meet with you one to three times. We can provide reassurance, information and advice or signpost to other partner. This could be:
- School nurse
- Youth worker
- Family support worker.
You can get other help here:
- Self help guides and apps
- Early Help Hub
- NHS UK
- Kooth
- Young Minds
- 24 hour mental health line and urgent help
Drop in - There are drop in sessions, so you don’t need to make an appointment – you can just turn up. More on the drop ins on local pages
No matter how big or small your problems are, our staff are available they can offer advice and help when needed.
Being a parent isn’t easy, you watch your children grow up, and help them learn to be independent, it can also be really hard work. It can feel especially hard if your child's mood and behaviour seem different and you're not sure why, or what you can do to help. But you are not alone.
Young Minds have a helpline which provides advice and support if you’re worried about your young person. Young Minds provide help to support your child, while looking after your own mental health too.
When a young person opens up to you about how they are feeling, or tells you about something they are struggling with, you might find the conversation tough and it can feel difficult to know what to say. This reaction is normal. It shows you care for that person and want to help them - it’s part of our nature to want to support others and this is something you should be proud of.
However sometimes we can take on a lot of stress. You might feel like it’s your responsibility alone to help them. But there are ways you can help and find people who can support you too so that you don’t feel overwhelmed and under pressure. Self help guides and apps
Our talking therapy service for adults may be an option for parents.
Our talking therapy service free support with common mental health problems like anxiety or depression.
In Warrington this service is provided by Talking Matters
If you have been assessed and placed on a waiting list for the most suitable treatment, there are other services you can use while you wait:
Kooth
A self referral service you can access online through their website. You can choose what level of support you feel would be helpful. Kooth offers a variety of self help resources, counsellor moderated chat rooms aimed to provide peer support, and you can choose to book one to one counselling sessions via the online system.
Young Minds
Young Minds is a mental health charity for children, young people and their parents or carers. It provides them with the tools to get the mental health support they need.
Alumina
Free online self harm support for 10 to 17 year olds. A seven week course for young people, which can be
accessed through your phone, tablet, or laptop.
Calm Harm
An app which provides immediate activities and techniques to support you to break the cycle of self harm and explore triggers.
Moodjuice
Online resources for emotional difficulties, problem focused, information and advice.
If you want to speak to someone you can contact your local Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) on:
- Halton: 01928 568 162
- Knowsley: 0151 351 8610
- St Helens: 01925 579 405
- Warrington: 01925 575 904
There is more help availble about staying safe on their website.
If you need urgent help, call NHS 111 and select the mental health option. If you are unable to keep yourself safe, please go to your local A&E emergency department.
Children and Young People, who need a specialist assessment or would benefit from long term treatment, which may include us coming to see you, going into hospital or extra outpatient care.
Children and Young People might need a community based specialist assessment for complex social communication difficulties, such as:
- Co-morbid ADHD
- Trauma
- PTSD
- Complex emotional dysregulation difficulties
- Clinical depression
- Major mental health disorders or eating disorders
- or an urgent mental health assessment
We can also refer to
- Social Care
- Young Offender Services
Take a look at our animation about our services that we provide in Halton, Knowsley, St Helens and Warrington.