Children’s service information for children

The child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) is here to help you and your family if you’re feeling sad, worried, angry, or struggling with your behaviour. These are all things we can support you with if you’re having mental health problems.

It’s normal to feel like this sometimes, but if it’s affecting your everyday life and you can’t do the things you enjoy, it might be time to talk to us. We can work with you and your family to understand how you’re feeling and find ways to help you feel better. If you’ve already spoken to someone like a friend, teacher, or family member and things aren’t getting better, we can offer extra support.

Our team includes many specially trained staff who are here to help you. Some of the people you might meet include:

• mental health nurses
• psychologists
• child psychiatrists
• art therapists
• family therapists
• support workers

If you feel you cannot speak to your parents or carers, please talk to an adult you trust. You can also contact your teacher, school nurse, GP, or reach out to the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) for support.

You can also find lots of information on Young Minds (opens in new window).

Your first visit

Please don’t worry about your first visit with us, our staff are here to help you.

When you arrive, you’ll meet our friendly receptionist, who will let your children and adolescent mental health service worker know you’re here. While you wait, you can enjoy books, toys, and games in the waiting room, or bring your own things if you prefer. We’ll make sure not to keep you waiting too long.

Your worker will invite you into a quiet room to talk without interruptions. Your parent, carer, or a trusted adult can come with you if you’d like.

Although we usually meet at our main base, we can also meet at places that are easier for you and your family, like your school or a local health centre. We’ll discuss the best location for your meeting.

During our first meeting, we’ll get to know you better and learn about your experiences. We’ll ask some questions, and both you and your family will fill out forms about your worries and difficulties to help us give you the best support. If you’d like, you can also speak to your children and adolescent mental health service worker alone.

During our meeting, we might ask you about:

• the problems, worries, and feelings you’re having
• your family
• your school and friends
• your interests, hobbies, and what you enjoy doing
• things you’re good at and areas you feel you could improve
• what you’d like to change or what you think you need help with

You might have lots of questions for us too, and there will be plenty of time for you to ask them. It might help to think about your questions before your visit and write them down to bring with you.

Everything you talk about with your children and adolescent mental health service worker will stay private. We won’t share anything with anyone else unless you want them to know. We will only share what you tell us if we think it’s necessary to keep you or someone else safe, but we will always let you know first if this is the case.

At the end of your first visit, you and your children and adolescent mental health service worker will make a plan for what happens next and arrange another visit if you need to come back. We may also discuss who else in our team could be helpful for you to meet.

How can the service help me?

There are many ways the child and adolescent mental health service can help you with the challenges you’re facing to improve how you’re feeling or behaving. You might need us if these things start to affect your school or home life, and you’re finding it hard to cope.

You may be feeling:

• worried
• sad
• angry

Or experience:

• bullying
• finding it hard to concentrate or sit still
• trouble with friends
• eating difficulties
• family issues
• unusual thoughts

Sharing what’s bothering you with friends and family can really help you feel better and make your problems more manageable. But if you’re worried about talking to those close to you, or if your problems feel too big to handle on your own, please speak to a teacher, school nurse, doctor, or someone else you trust. They can help arrange for us to meet with you and chat about how you’re feeling.

Plan your journey

If you use public transport, the Traveline journey planner provides information about what services and times are available.

Page last reviewed: March 11, 2025
Next review due: March 11, 2026