Emotional and mental health support for young people

NHS mental health information and support services, include:

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) - offers support for young people and their families who are experiencing emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties
• Young people and mental health - An information hub offering young people advice and help on mental health problems
• Stress, anxiety and depression - NHS Choices Moodzone offers practical, useful information, interactive tools, and videos to support you on your way to feeling better.
• NHS Talking therapies - therapists help to overcome life’s difficulties and manage them better
• A guide to mental health services in England

NHS Choices useful links:

• Anxiety
• Self-harm
• Eating disorders
• Bipolar disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Online mental health services
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Audio guides to boost your mood
• Mindfulness

If you are worried about your mental health there are plenty of ways to get help, as follows

• Search our services directory to find mental health services 

• ARC - offers a free and confidential counselling service
• Adviza - provides information, advice and guidance
• Mental wellbeing - sport and physical Activities
• Find self-help books through the Read Well programme at your local library
• Samaritans -  provide emotional support, 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair
• Wokingham Young Carers Project - juggling all your responsibilities may be difficult, the young carers project offers carers the opportunity for a break
• SMART - Wokingham Borough Substance Misuse Recovery Service
• Sexual Health and sexuality services   

Over 18

• Community Mental Health Team - for patients, carers, family members, GPs, NHS professionals and anyone else in Wokingham who has questions or concerns about a mental health related issue
• Rethink Mental Illness (Wokingham) - provides a community support service, offering people with mental illness the support and help they need to regain confidence to engage in everyday activities
• Mental Health Advocacy - provides advocates who will support and represent another person in a variety of situations, in which they feel unable to represent their own interests
• Wellbeing in mind - courses for people age 19 Plus
• Mental Wellbeing - sport and physical Activities
• Wokingham Mental Health Association - drop in and befriending service, 
• Samaritans -  provide emotional support, 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair
• SEAP - provides confidential, independent advocacy services
• Independent Advocacy - advocacy for anyone living in Wokingham who needs support to have their voice heard
• POhWER - information, advice, support and advocacy services. Supporting people who face difficult issues and want to make their voice heard

Healthwatch Wokingham undertook an emotional wellbeing survey with pupils at St Crispins School in Wokingham in 2015. 

50 percent of children surveyed regularly felt stressed, anxious or depressed. The full results can be viewed in the video below.

Following the survey Healthwatch Wokingham worked with a team of pupils from St Crispins School and the University of Reading to create an emotional wellbeing app for young people.

• Papyrus prevention of young suicide - provide confidential help and advice to young people and anyone worried about a young person
• Young Minds - provides information for both parents and young people
• The Mix - peer to peer support, telephone counselling, 
• MIND - provides information and advice, training programmes
• Head Meds - general information about medication
• SANE - mental health helpline offering specialist emotional support and information to anyone affected by mental illness
• CALM - helpline is for men who are down or have hit a wall for any reason, who need to talk or find information and support.
• Youth health talk - information for young people, from young people
• Childline - helpline, peer support via message board, online chat

There are a number of wellbeing apps and tools available to help manage difficult periods in a person life.

The following online mental health services have all been approved for use by the NHS. Further information can be found on the NHS Choices website:

• Kooth is a free online service that offers emotional and mental health support for children and young people
• Check your mood self assessment uses a simple questionnaire designed to recommend some excellent resources to help you better understand how you feel
• Sleepio is an online programme that helps people overcome sleep problems. It’s based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Big white wall app is a safe online community of people who are anxious, down or not coping who support and help each other by sharing what’s troubling them, guided by trained professionals

Visit the Public Health England one you website for information on the Couch to 5K app designed to get you off the couch and running in just 9 weeks.

The Mix charity has created an app called Stressheads, aimed at helping young people deal with all kinds of life stress, from exam pressure to money problems. Visit The Mix website for further information.

Local Transformation Plan for young people's mental health

In 2015 the Government wrote a report, called Future in Mind, about why changes in mental health services for children and young people are needed. Using this and the things you told us in 2014 the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) along with ourselves, Reading and West Berkshire Local Authorities came up with a plan for making mental health services for children and young people in Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire much better.

To find out what has been done to make things better and what still needs to be done, read the Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-being summary (PDF document).