Children’s service information for parents and carers

Your child’s behaviour will change as they grow. It can be hard to know when their behaviour is a problem. There are many reasons they might need help to understand their feelings or how things around them are affecting them.

Some of the common early warning signs that will let you know that things may not be right with your child’s emotional health and wellbeing include:

• falling behind at school or college
• refusal to go to school or college
• being more aggressive, disruptive or challenging
• quiet or uncommunicative
• feeling more anxious or sad
• depressed
• not mixing with friends and spending a lot of time alone
• not eating
• not being able to concentrate

If you’re concerned about your child’s behaviour, try talking to them first. This can help you understand what’s going on. Being aware of times or situations that may be causing extra pressure, and showing your child you’re there to listen and support them, can often be enough to help.

Other ways to help your child stay well include:

• providing regular, healthy meals
• encouraging exercise and staying active
• supporting them to do things they enjoy or see friends
• helping them stick to a bedtime routine

If you feel your child needs more help, talk to their teacher, school nurse, doctor, or social worker. They can help decide if the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) might be the right support and, if needed, make a referral on your behalf.

Request for support

If you and a professional decide your child needs our support, the professional will make a request on your behalf. You will be informed when the request is made.

The professional will complete a form explaining why they think children and adolescent mental health service is the right service for your child. Sometimes, we may contact you or the professional for more information to ensure our service is appropriate.

Once we have all the information, we’ll decide if we can provide support. If we can, we’ll contact you with an appointment. There may be a wait, but it should be no longer than a few weeks. You can call the local service for an update.

If we determine we are not the right service for your child, we will explain why and suggest other services that may be more suitable.

What happens at my child’s first appointment?

For your child’s first appointment, we’ll usually invite you to our clinic, but sometimes we may meet at a more convenient location, like your home or school. We’ll discuss the best place to meet.

The first appointment focuses on assessing your child’s mental health needs, which may take more than one session. You might receive questionnaires to complete beforehand, which will help with the assessment, so please bring them with you.

During the assessment, your child will be seen individually and with you, their parents or carers. One or two of our team members will ask questions to understand your child’s difficulties, explain how our service works, and discuss confidentiality.

At the end of the assessment, we’ll discuss next steps. This might include more sessions with the service worker or referring you to someone else in our team. Sometimes, we may recommend another organisation that can better help your child, and we’ll assist in connecting you to them.

How will I be involved?

We believe in working closely with parents and carers throughout your child’s service journey. We encourage you to be involved in the assessment process, as you can provide valuable information that helps us support your child. We may meet with you together with your child or separately, but we will always make time to listen to your thoughts, share progress, and answer any questions you have.

What questions will we be asked?

Some of the questions you may get asked include:

• what difficulties is your child currently experiencing?
• when did you first notice this?
• who is around the home, and what is the family structure?
• how does your child get on at school, with friends and teachers?
• how are your child’s mood or stress levels?
• what was your child like as a baby and at different stages in their childhood, for older children?
• what are the important things that have happened in your child’s life so far?
• what is your child good at?
• how do they like to enjoy themselves?
• what would you like your child to change or achieve from coming to the service?
• what type of help do you want?
• do you know about any risks to your child’s wellbeing or safety?

Help in a crisis or out of hours

The Children and Young People’s Crisis team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all young people. If your child is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can contact them for immediate help.

If someone is in immediate danger or requires serious or life-threatening immediate emergency mental or physical health assistance, see what to do in an emergency.

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