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Mental health and emotional wellbeing support for children and young people

Find information about support and services for children and young people who need help or advice with mental health issues and emotional wellbeing.

If you need help right now

If you or a young person you are caring for might not be safe you should:

  • follow a personal safety or care plan step-by-step if you or they receive support from a mental health professional
  • phone an urgent care or crisis line.

NHS urgent helpline

  • Call: 080 0151 0023 (Islington only)
  • When: anytime (24 hours a day, seven days a week) 
  • For: everyone - children, young people and adults
  • Cost: free

You can find anytime crisis line numbers for other areas using the NHS Service Finder.

Other helplines you can call at any time

  • Samaritans – If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, you can call the Samaritans immediately at any time, day or night. You can also email them directly.
  • Shout – Shout is a free, confidential, 24/7 text support service for anyone in the UK who is struggling to cope. To start a conversation, text the word 'Shout' to 85258. Trained Shout volunteers are here to listen at any time of day or night and messages won't appear on your phone bill.
  • Papyrus runs a national helpline called Hopeline247.
    • Phone: 080 0068 4141
    • Text: 88247
    • Email: pat@papyrus-uk.org
    • When: 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
    • For: children and young people under the age of 35 who are experiencing thoughts of suicide or those worried that a young person is affected by this.
    • Cost: free
  • The Mix – If you are under 25 and feel like you can’t cope or are worried about how you are feeling, you can contact their crisis messenger 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They provide in-the-moment support and problem solving when you need it most. To start a conversation, text the word ‘THEMIX’ to 85258.

Helplines for abuse at home

If you, a child or young person is affected by or seeing abuse or threats at home, call one of these private lines for help and support. 

  • ChildLine – You can contact ChildLine about anything. Whatever you’re worried about they are there to support you.
  • NSPCC - If you have any concerns at all about a child’s safety or wellbeing you can contact the NSPCC for advice and guidance.
  • Refuge – You can contact Refuge for advice and support if you are experiencing domestic abuse. You can call them 24 hours a day for free and in confidence. Support is also available by chatbot and via British Sign Language (BSL).
  • Solace – Solace Women’s Aid offers free confidential advice and support for women in London affected by abuse.
  • Karma Nirvana – Runs a national Honour Based Abuse Helpline. The helpline is free and available Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.

Get emotional and mental health support

If you are young person or you care for a young person who needs help with their emotional and mental health, there is lots of support in Islington.

Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) services include:

How to get help

A parent can ask for help or a professional can refer you if:

  • you are a child or young person
  • haven’t turned 18 (or 25 if you have special educational needs)
  • live in or are educated in Islington and registered with an Islington GP. 

Professionals include schools, health professionals, early help, children’s social care, charity and community provisions, or any professional working with young people and their families.

You can self-refer if you are over 16 but under 18.

What you will need

You must include on the form:

  • name
  • age
  • home address
  • GP details
  • school details
  • parent contact details and email.

You should describe:

  • Current level of need - what support the family needs, why and when.
  • Clear mental health need - outline how mental health need is affecting day-to-day life. 
  • Mental health risk – are there any risks like self-harm or suicidal ideas. Include what guidance and safety measures have been given, like a crisis number.
  • What has been tried before – such as getting other services involved like Early Help, Bright Start, and attach any reports.
  • Any consultations with linked CAMHS/SEMH professionals - discuss with them before making referral.
  • Voice of the child - what are they struggling with and what do they want?

Request help and support

What happens next

  1. Children Social Care Team (CSCT) screens the referral for safeguarding issues.
  2. Request is sent to SEMH and assigned to duty clinician – this is all done within 24 hours.

Depending on the request, we will decide one of the following:

  • The service contacts the young person, parent, carer or referrer for more information.
  • We pass the request to partner agencies for assessment.
  • We pass the request to Islington CAMHS team.
  • We send the request to gather more information and work out support needs (an enhanced enquiry) if needed.
  • Return the request to the referrer for more information or sent to other means of support

You will find out how long the wait time is after this stage. This will usually be within six weeks. We deal with urgent cases within 24 hours.

Contact

Stay mentally healthy

We all need good mental health so that we can live happy and healthy lives. There are times when we may experience difficult situations that impact our emotional wellbeing and mental health and can affect the way we interact with other people, our behaviour and our ability to manage day to day things.

Asking for help when you need it is good, but there are also lots of things we can do look after our own health and wellbeing:

  • Connect - Spend time with people around you at home, school or in the local community.
  • Be active - Exercising and movement makes you feel good. Look for an activity you enjoy.
  • Keep learning - Learning isn’t just for school. Study something new or try something different.
  • Give - Help other people by being kind, smile or say ‘thank you’. Do something for others.
  • Take notice - Be curious about the world around you. Look at nature you can see, beautiful flowers, birds and trees.

Wellbeing support

  • NCL Waiting Room - Explore over 400 wellbeing options for young people in Islington and across North Central London including information about all the main mental health services available. You can search by topic and there is also the option to create a personalised wellbeing plan.
  • Kooth  - If you’re aged between 11 and 25, or a child in your care is, Kooth offers free, safe and anonymous online wellbeing and mental health support
  • Young Minds - Range of mental health support for young people up to the age of 19, and parents.
  • The Mix - Digital charity for young people with information and a forum on wide range of topics, including mental
    health, eating disorders, sex, alcohol, drugs & self-harm. Also offers a phone line for 1-to-1 chats.
  • B-eat (Eating Disorders Association) - The UK eating disorder charity specializes in supporting individuals with all kinds of eating disorders (including anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating). They have a specialised youth line and student line to support young people with eating disorders. They also organise online support groups and chat rooms for a peer-supported environment.
  • Islington and Camden Young Carers Service - Run by Family Action, this service provides support for young carers (including children) in terms of family support, outreach groups and focus groups.
  • Papyrus - Runs a national helpline to support and provide advice to young people or anyone worried about a young person on suicide prevention. Also provide training courses to professionals on raising awareness to suicide.
  • Body and Soul - Offers support and trauma coping strategies to young people and crisis support for frontline NHS staff Resources for Parents and Carers.
  • Minds Matter at The Peel Centre - Mental health awareness workshops for young people (16-24) or parents. Sessions are short, informal and interactive, aiming to increase general knowledge about mental health problems and increase knowledge of what local services are available for when people need help.

For help right now

For young people in Islington, phone 080 0151 0023 if you need help straight away.