Getting help: what and where?

If you want to get some more information, advice or help with your health, either your physical health or your mental health, there are lots of different places you can try.

In your school

In school you could try your school nurse or head of pastoral care, or your year head. Lots of schools also have:

• counselling or student advice services; some may also offer student mentors
• drop-in provision in the school lunch breaks or after school... these are sometimes run by staff from voluntary sector youth information, advice and support services (YIACS) or staff from the mental health services for young people in your area – sometimes known as CAMHS which stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Finding out what's available in your area

If the people offering these services in your school can’t help you, then they will be able to give you some ideas of where else you might try.

Other people or places that should know what's available in the area where you live include: your GP, your health centre, youth centre or local children's services.

Your local library is another good place to try – they often display posters and information leaflets about local services.

Apart from in schools, some services have their own clinics or offices where people come to see them. Some may be based at your local hospital or they may offer sessions at regular times (e.g. on one or two days a week) in GP surgeries or health centres and some do home visits. Some offer drop-in sessions (where you don’t have to book ahead to see someone) whilst others need a letter from your GP or someone at school and you have to wait for an appointment.

Some offer sessions in the evenings or on Saturdays whereas others are only open in the daytime during the week.

You should be able to check out whether you need an appointment, and when the service is open, by phoning the service you are interested in beforehand.

What sorts of help can they offer?

Just as mental health problems can affect people in different ways, so there are many different types of ways of offering people help with their difficulties.

The sorts of help these different services offer include:

• Various forms of therapy – which can include talking therapies, counselling and psychotherapy
• Work on an individual basis (with a young person on their own), work with whole families and sometimes help offered via a group made up of young people who may be experiencing similar problems
• Medication
• Admission to hospital – this might be offered by what are sometimes called specialist CAMHS if a young person’s problems are particularly serious or complex and where a team of different people trained in mental health may need to help the young person.

How long the help might last really depends on what a person needs – it might be a one- off appointment, a short series of weekly meetings or longer if there are a number of issues to sort out.

Who works in these services?

Lots of different types of people with training in mental health work in these services. They are all trained to listen to young people and to help them if they have worries or problems, big or small, or are unsure and want to check things out.

Some of the professionals you might see include:

• psychiatrists
• psychologists
• social workers
• family therapists
• nurses
• primary mental health workers
• early intervention
• workers
• outreach workers
• counsellors