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North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership

Mental health support for young people

CAMHS is an Ayrshire-wide referral service.

Referrals can be made by your:

  • teacher (or another education professional)
  • doctor (or another health and social care professional)

Who can be referred to CAMHS?

The service is for children, young people and their families.

We can help any young person up to their 18th birthday, who may be experiencing difficulties ranging from emotional or behavioural problems to persistent mental ill-health issues.

These issues may:

  • have a significant impact on everyday life
  • cause serious harm either to the young person or someone else

CAMHS will support:

  • anxiety disorders
  • bipolar affective disorder
  • depression
  • neuro-developmental and tic disorders (when presenting with other mental ill-health issues)
  • obsessive compulsive disorder
  • eating disorders
  • post-traumatic stress disorder
  • psychosis
  • recurrent self-harm

What happens next?

After referral, we will work with you, your family and carers to assess your needs and wishes. We will use this information to create your support plan.

The plan will help us to:

  • support you towards goals
  • promote your recovery

You may then receive support from a service arranged by us.

It is important that you get the most out of your time at CAMHS.

If there is anything we’ve said to you or your parent/carer that you do not understand, please ask. We will explain this to you in a different way.

Carers

If you care for someone with mental ill-health, you can complete an Adult Carer Support Plan or a Young Carers Statement. These give you the opportunity to identify your needs, and any support you may require to continue providing care.

Advocacy services

The support of an independent advocate can help you to express your opinions or wishes. We can provide information about advocacy services.

Helplines

You may find the following helplines useful:

Hands on Scotland: a toolkit of helpful responses to encourage children and young people’s emotional wellbeing

Young Minds: a charity championing the wellbeing and mental health of young people

Contact us

To find out how we can help, please get in touch: