CHILDREN and young people across Hampshire can now get advice about mental health and wellbeing following the launch of a dedicated website.

Hampshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), provided by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, has launched the new site hampshirecamhs.nhs.uk to help children and young people across the county learn more about their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

The site has three individual areas; one for young people, one for parents and carers, and one for professionals.

They all give information and tips about how to manage, and where to get help and support for some of the key mental health difficulties and concerns that young people might experience as they grow up, including depression, sexuality and gender identity, obsessive compulsive disorder, bereavement, eating difficulties, and low self-esteem.

Rachel Walker, head of service for Hampshire CAMHS, said: “We are so pleased to launch our new Hampshire CAMHS website. We hope that this will be a really useful resource in helping local children and young people to find out more about what they can to do to maintain their own mental health and emotional wellbeing, how they can support their friends who might be having a difficult time, and also how to seek specialist help if they think they need some extra support.

“The website is part of our ongoing commitment to develop and improve the way that we communicate with young people and families – making it as straightforward as possible for them to seek help from our services when/if they should need it, or to get information about the most appropriate service to help them.”

Around 4,000 children and young people start treatment with Sussex Partnership every year in Hampshire.

The Hampshire CAMHS website also promotes campaigns and events the service runs for young people, families and professionals, such as their Everybody Campaign - a year-long campaign which focuses on raising awareness of eating disorders, and the importance of body confidence and self-esteem.

Helen Dove, innovation and participation lead for Hampshire CAMHS, said: “We do a lot of work with local young people, families, partner organisations and schools, so it is fantastic that all of the information about our events and campaigns are all in one place so that everyone can easily get involved too.”

“I am really proud to have worked on this project from the start – the early conversations about what we would like the website to be like - and now seeing it launched, is fantastic.

“I am confident that this website will act as a really helpful resource for the children and young people that we work with in Hampshire, as well as their parents, carers and the professionals who work with them.”