Swindon CAMHS

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Welcome to Swindon CAMHS

We support young people with emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties.

Who are we?

We are a specialist NHS service providing assessment and support for children and young people up to 18 who are experiencing poor mental health.

We work with you and your family to identify your difficulties and provide the right help for you.

How can you get help from CAMHS?

Learn about referral / self-referral
Need help NOW!!

Common questions

You’ll hear this abbreviation a lot, so let’s explain it now. CAMHS simply stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

CAMHS help children and young people up to 18 who are finding it hard to cope with everyday life because of difficult feelings, behaviour or relationships.

Most of the time when we are sad, angry, stressed or worried these feelings pass within a few days, but if they go on for a while and stop us enjoying and coping with life, then CAMHS can help.

Just as we go to the doctors when we are physically ill, sometimes we need extra help with our mental health.

Learn more: Young Mind’s ‘Your Guide to CAMHS’ 

Learn more about what happens at an appointment…

We provide flexible support to suit your needs.

  • Initially we will find out more about the difficulties you are having.
  • We will discuss the sort of treatment and support that is likely to help and agree a plan with you.
  • Sometimes a few sessions will be enough to get you back on track. Sometimes you may need to meet with us for longer.
  • Most importantly you will be fully involved and the plan we agree together will be reviewed regularly to make sure it is still helping.
The CAMHS team is made up of different mental health professionals with specialised skills and expertise. You might see one member of the team on their own or several of them. We will work with you to agree what support and treatment is best for you. Learn more about the team…

CAMHS supports children and young people aged 0-18 years. They can work with you in a range of different ways to suit your needs. Some of the ways we can work with you and the therapies we use are explained below:

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
  • Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
  • Family Therapy
  • Psychotherapy
  • Solution Focussed Practice

Healios logoAs part of our digital offer we are working with our partner, Healios, to provide secure online video assessments and treatment that you can access from your home. This will be offered to you if your clinician feels that it is appropriate.

Learn more about what CAMHS can do to help…

Young people like you are key to designing and delivering our services. Find out how you can get involved via the link below.

Learn more about getting involved…

What we help with

Anxiety and phobias

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Autism specturm disorder (ASD)

Bipolar disorder

Coping with traumatic events & abuse

Depression and Mood Disorders

Eating Disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Psychosis

Self-Harm

Sexuality and Gender Identity (LGBTQ)

Suicidal thoughts

Tic disorders, including Tourettes syndrome

I want to learn more about...

Confidentiality

Confidentiality means that what you tell us is kept as private as possible. The only exception to us maintaining confidentiality is if we become concerned about your safety or the safety of others.

We will always try to discuss with you who we need to talk to and what we’re going to say, in a supportive and open way.

Your CAMHS worker can explain this to you in more detail.

Consent

Consent means agreement or permission to do or allow something. CAMHS may ask for your consent to share information with other people (your family or school for example) or consent to accept treatment.

Keeping you safe

You have the right to be safe, no matter who you are or what’s happening to you.

Safeguarding includes:

  • keeping you safe from bad treatment, including abuse or neglect
  • stopping things which harm your health and development
  • making sure you are growing up in a way that lets you get safe and effective care

If you are worried staff are always available and willing to talk with you about any concerns you have.

Young Minds (an external site) provide a helpful guide explaining what happens when young people receiving help from CAMHS reach an age when they need to move on and get the support that they need from adult services.

You can access this guide here: Young Minds: Young people’s guide to transition

Young people have said that there are some words in mental health services which can be confusing.  

Use our jargon buster to find out what common words you might hear mean: Jargon buster / glossary

There are loads of great resources around to help you get better. Check out our useful links page.
  • Equality Statement

We are committed to providing services that are accessible to all. Different people have different needs and we will do whatever we can to ensure these needs are met.