Mild means that the condition has some impact on your daily life. Moderate means that the conditions has a significant impact on your daily life. Severe means that the condition makes it almost impossible to get through daily life.
Not if you are over 16 and you don’t want us to. If you are under 16, your parents are legally responsible for you so we need to ask them before we can help you.
Sometimes it can be really helpful having your parents or carers involved as we might be able to help them to support you and understand you better.
There are lots of tried and tested ways we can help people that don’t involve any medicines. We’ll always try these techniques first if the evidence suggest they will help you. However, sometimes medicines can help you start to feel better while we find ways of helping you to address the underlying problems.
Confidentiality is an important part of how we work and we know that you trust us with information that may be sensitive. We have a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. This means we store it securely and control access to it.
You are entitled to ask all the questions you like about your diagnosis, care and treatment. It is quite common for things to become worse before they get better, while therapies start to take effect. But if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to raise them with the team providing your care.
Your health records are yours, whether they are paper or electronic. All healthcare professionals have a legal requirement to allow you to see your records - and your child’s records if they are under 16 and you are their legal guardian. The only exception is if your clinician thinks it would cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental health.
To see or be given a copy of your records, contact the manager where you received your care. If someone else is requesting access on your behalf, you must give your consent in writing. This should be sent to us when they make their formal written request.
Counselling is a chance for you to talk through your problems, anxieties and emotions with a trained counsellor, who plays a supportive role, and may sometimes provide practical advice on problem solving. This way of working may be useful for self-esteem issues, bereavement, relationship issues, work and study worries, anger, stress, and mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
Family therapists help family members find constructive ways to help each other. They work in ways that acknowledge the contexts of people’s families and other relationships, sharing and respecting individuals’ different perspectives, beliefs, views and stories, and exploring possible ways forward.
Clinical psychologists are trained to understand behaviour, relationships and emotions and can assess these using psychometric tests. They can offer a range of therapies for difficulties such as phobias, eating disorders, depression, anxieties and relationship difficulties. They can also offer parenting advice and family therapy.
Child and adolescent psychotherapists spend a large part of their training understanding infant behaviour and early relationships, recognising the impact of early experiences on later life and relationships. They work mainly with children and teenagers in 1-2-1 therapy, providing an environment in which the child or young person can play and enquire and begin to make sense of their experiences.
A child and adolescent psychiatrist is a medically qualified doctor who specialises in understanding and working with mental health difficulties that children and young people experience. A large part of their work involves identifying what the difficulties are, understanding what may have caused them to develop, and giving advice about what may help. Psychiatrists are also able to recommend and prescribe medication.
A CAMHS nurse is a qualified nurse who has specialised in the area of child and adolescent mental health. Some nurses may have additional training in particular therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). They work with children, young people, their families and other agencies such as schools and social care to improve resilience and address mental health problems.