CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service)

CAMHS stands for child and adolescent mental health services. We are the NHS service that offers support and treatment for children and young people, aged up to 18 years old, who are experiencing difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing.

We also support parents, carers and families of these children and young people.

In Barnsley, CAMHS is made up of several teams who specialise in different areas and work together to support children, young people and families during their journey with CAMHS.

Our teams are made up of lots of different healthcare professionals who have experience of working specifically with children and young people. This includes nurses, social workers, psychologists, doctors, therapists and support workers.

What can Barnsley CAMHS help with?

Usually, when a child or young person feels sad, stressed, frightened, or worried, these feelings will pass with time and with help from family, friends, teachers or other health or care professionals. There’s a lot of evidence and research that shows how eating well, doing activities that you enjoy and getting a good night’s sleep also help with protecting and improving your mental health.

However, sometimes these feelings can go on for a very long time and can negatively affect everyday life, for example, friendships, school, college and home life. When things get to this point, Barnsley CAMHS can offer you, and those around you, more support.

We help young people with some of the following problems or difficulties:

• Feelings of sadness, low mood or depression
• Obsessive thoughts and behaviours such as having to check or repeat things
• Anxiety issues, including panic attacks
• Self-harm and thoughts of hurting themselves
• Suicidal thoughts or thoughts that “I don’t want to be here anymore”
• Problems with eating and food
• Long standing difficulties with coping after a scary and traumatic event.
• We also can give parents and carers of children and young people advice on how to support their child with the difficulties they are experiencing.

We work in partnership with other health and care professionals to meet the needs of children, young people and families as a whole. These professionals include mental health support teams in schools, school staff, GPs and social workers.

How do Barnsley CAMHS help?

CAMHS provide a range of support depending on what is needed. Support may take place over the telephone, online or face to face.  This support may include:

• Signposting to other relevant services and resources
• Group work for anxiety, low mood and self-confidence
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Family work and therapy
• Psychological and psycho-educational interventions
• Creative therapies
• Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy
• Medication
• Urgent support when there is an immediate mental health risk

Accessing the service

• Tel: 01226 107377
• Email: BarnsleyCYPMHRequestSupport@swyt.nhs.uk

Where are CAMHS based in Barnsley?

CAMHS can work flexibly to support you. This means we can provide appointments via the telephone, online or face to face (including in homes and community settings). Each appointment type and location of the appointment is planned to suit your needs.

CAMHS is based at New Street Health Centre, in the centre of Barnsley, just opposite the car park of the large Morrisons.

CAMHS – entrance two
New Street Health Centre,
Upper New Street,
Barnsley
S70 1LP

Referral guidelines

To request mental health and emotional wellbeing support, professionals, parents and carers and young people can contact the Branching Minds Barnsley team on 01226 107377 or complete the request for support form and send this to BarnsleyCYPMHRequestSupport@swyt.nhs.uk.

Please note that a child or young person must be registered with a GP practice in Barnsley, or attend a school in Barnsley, to request support.

When requesting support, a member of the team will ask different questions to help understand how best to support you and your child or young person.

The Branching Minds Barnsley team is available Monday – Thursday, 9am to 4:30pm and Friday, 9am to 4pm (excluding bank holidays).

For emergency support outside of these hours, please contact your out of hours GP (by calling your practice number as usual) or NHS 111.

You should only contact the emergency services on 999 or go to your nearest A&E if:

• Someone’s life is at risk – for example, they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose
• You do not feel you can keep yourself or someone else safe.

When a young person attends A&E with concerns for their mental health, they will have an emergency assessment undertaken by the all age liaison team based at the hospital. CAMHS will then be informed and one of the team will offer a follow up contact within seven days (this could be face to face or over the phone and could be on a weekend or bank holiday).

Updated:  February 2025