Letter from CAMHS
Re: Local support for children and young people’s mental health
Dear parents, families, carers and young people,
We’ve all been through an incredibly stressful and anxious time. The world is a different place from 18 months ago and the repeated disruption to your education patterns may have caused additional strain to your mental health.
I want to make sure you’re aware of the various ways you can access support locally. If you’re feeling more stressed or anxious and it’s making you behave differently, you might want to consider one of the following:
1. ‘Speak CAMHS’ is a helpline for young people and their parents, carers, families, GPs and other health professionals seeking advice about the mental health of a young person.
Call freephone 0800 328 4444 and choose option 2.
The helpline is open:
• Monday to Friday from 8am to 11pm
• Weekends and Bank holidays from midday to 8pm
Outside these hours, crisis calls will be passed to an out of hours CAMHS professional. If they're not available to talk straight away, you can arrange a call back.
Calls to the helpline are free of charge.
2. Kooth, is an online mental health platform for children and young people between
11 and 25 years. Kooth offers:
• safe and secure support from an online community of peers and a team of experienced, accredited counsellors.
• An anonymous, self-referral digital service that enables children and young
people to ‘drop in’ and find fast, easy and free support at a time suited to
them.
• No waiting times, no referrals, no thresholds to meet and complete anonymity.
3. Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) offer advice and self-help guidance, including groups, to young people and are directly referred to by school staff.
• In Hounslow, with a remote digital offer, we’ve extended MHST to all schools across the borough. We are working with schools to manage how this might change if mental health practitioners start offering more face-to-face appointments from September.
4. More information about what support is available in your local area is on our
Kind regards,
Dr Johan Redelinghuys
Clinical Director
Children & Adolescent Mental Health Services