Mental Health Support
We offer one-to-one mental health and wellbeing support for young people aged 8-17 living in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Find out more about accessing our service and complete the referral form below.
What Is It?
We have a small team of qualified and trainee Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CWPs for short). They are trained to support young people who are experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, such as low mood, anxiety, worries and phobias.
The approach we use is called low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) , which has a strong evidence base for improving the mental health of both children and adults. We support young people to look at thoughts, emotions and behaviours and work towards making change, building resilience, and learning positive coping skills.
Please see our Traffic Light leaflet for further guidance on criteria for this service. Some young people with a higher level of need may require a different therapeutic approach, for example counselling or high-intensity CBT. We can help you decide if our service is best for you and suggest alternative services if needed.
How Does It Work?
Our Wellbeing Practitioners work with young people and parents in a flexible way for a short length of time (6-10) sessions. Low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is goal-focused and together we look at the current difficulties you’re facing and how to overcome them. The therapy involves guiding young people to learn self-help tools which they can then continue to use later in life. Wellbeing Practitioners can meet you where you feel comfortable, whether that’s at school or at one of our youth centres or elsewhere in the community.
Who is it for?
Young people aged 8 – 17 years old
- Who live in the following postcodes – BS1, BS2, BS3, BS4, BS5, BS6, BS7, BS15, BS16, BS30, BS32, BS34, BS35, BS36 or BS37 (OR able to meet at The Station BS1, or Kingswood Estate BS15)
- Who are not currently accessing support through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
We can support young people who live outside of the above postcodes, but only if they are able to meet us at our city centre youth hub, The Station (BS1 2AG) or at our base in Kingswood at the Kingswood Estate (BS15 8DB) for their sessions.
We also have LGBTQ+ Wellbeing Practitioners who are experienced in supporting young people within the LGBTQ+ community and who lead our youth groups, Proud to Be. We understand that being LGBTQ+ can increase your vulnerability to mental health difficulties and we aim to create a space where you’re safe to be yourself.
If you are a young person who meets the above criteria, you can refer yourself. The following people and organisations can also refer to our wellbeing service:
- Parents/carers
- GP surgery/ health care provider
- Voluntary sector organisation/charity
- Social care
- Family support services/ other local authority services
- CAMHS
- Hospital Education
- Primary Schools
- Secondary Schools (Kingswood only)
For school referrals, please see info on the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) – Mental Health Support Team – OTR (otrbristol.org.uk).
