Family Engagement Resources
Help is available.
Speak to the Family Engagement team at New Heights or contact any of these organisations directly:
Autism Post Diagnosis Learning Programme
Receiving an autism (ASD) diagnosis for your child can evoke many different emotions. In some respects, you may feel relieved but equally overwhelmed and confused about what to do next.
The Autism Post-Diagnosis Learning Programme has been developed to guide you through your journey. As well as learning about how autism is experienced by children and young people, you’ll explore strategies on how you can support your child so they can achieve their full potential.
Click to their website for more information on sessions and how to join.
KOOTH offers mental health and emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People across the country. The provision in Liverpool is for 11-18 year olds and can be accessed by clicking on the following link.
KOOTH referral page (for Young People but parents could help support): https://www.kooth.com/
There is also a link for a video explaining who KOOTH are and what they do here: https://www.kooth.com/video.
Serving a population of over 150,000 children and young people. YPAS offers a wide range of support, wellbeing and therapeutic services for children, young people and families in Liverpool.
Established in 1966; YPAS is a charity that supports children, young people and families to address their mental health and emotional well-being difficulties.
The delivery of our citywide services includes: primary schools, secondary schools and at our 3 community hubs.
YPAS referral page:
Benefits and Support. Help in a crisis.
If you need urgent financial support you may be entitled to help from the Liverpool Citizens Support Scheme.
Find out more and how to apply at: https://liverpool.gov.uk/benefits/help-in-a-crisis/
For information and support for parents/carers please follow @freshplusgroup on Twitter or you can contact the parent and carers support group here:
https://www.freshplusgroup.org.uk/
Here are some questions young people have asked CAMHS, taken from their website. If you don’t find an answer to your question here, please call CAMHS on 0151 293 3662 and they will be happy to have a chat with you. You can also make a self-referral by calling CAMHS.
How can we access CAMHS?
If you are worried about your child’s emotional and mental health, you can seek a referral from any professional connected with your child (e.g. GP, Social Worker, Health Visitor, School Nurse or Teacher). We also take referrals over the phone and you can ‘self refer’ your child by calling us. Over 16s can also self-refer
Every weekday we have a team of experienced mental health professionals who look at the referrals that we receive. Their task is to decide whether it looks from the information as if CAMHS is the right service to help, they then decide whether the referral should be treated as urgent or routine. Urgent appointments are seen within two weeks and routine appointments are seen as soon as possible (and within the maximum wait time of 18 weeks).
What to expect at your first appointment?
Your first appointment is called a ‘Choice’ appointment. We call it this because we hope to give children, young people and families and carers as much choice as possible in the plans that are made to start helping.
You will meet with an experienced member of our team who will work with you to develop an initial shared understanding of the difficulties. We will be asking you what you are worried about, what you have already tried and what you would like to change. We will help you to think about whether our service or other services are best placed to help. We will also be considering risk, what you might be able to do for yourselves and what the intervention options are. Ultimately, your ‘Choice’ appointment(s) should help bring you to a point where you can make an informed decision about what is needed.
Your ‘Choice’ Clinician will then direct you to the most appropriate part of our service if we think that CAMHS interventions are likely to be helpful and effective. In most cases, the next person you meet will be your ‘Partnership’ Clinician who will oversee any on-going care.
What happens next?
We hope that between your ‘Choice’ and ‘Partnership’ appointments that the advice you have been given and the changes you begin to make will have been helpful. There are several aims of the first ‘Partnership’ session. Firstly, there will be a chance to revisit your goals and see if these have changed at all. We will also begin a more in-depth assessment to reach a shared understanding and develop a plan of action and support.
Your ‘Partnership’ Clinician will have a set of core clinical skills, mental health training, experience and expertise. However, you are experts in your own family and your own experiences and we will work in partnership with you to offer as many or as few sessions as are needed to move towards your goals. On average, seven or eight sessions appear to be enough to achieve some meaningful change; however, decisions about on-going care or discharge will be made at regular review appointments. The care that you receive will also be discussed within a Multi-disciplinary team.
Sometimes, your ‘Partnership’ Clinician will want to introduce another therapist to you or your child. This would be to add a specific assessment or therapy skill to your bespoke package of intervention. This might be about providing a short piece of intensive work/assessment or a longer term piece of work at an enhanced level.
In general, the care that your family and your child would fall in to the following areas:
- Consultation and Multi-Agency Work
- Extended Assessment
- Individual Therapeutic Interventions
- Family Interventions
- Group-Based Interventions
- Training
How do we measure change?
We are committed to delivering high-quality, evidence-based and effective support. From the beginning of your involvement with us we will be monitoring the impact of any interventions. You will be asked to fill in some questionnaires that will be repeated throughout the time that we spend with you and your family. The questionnaires will help us to determine the severity of difficulties and will also help us to monitor change over time. We will also ask you to feedback to us about your experience of our service.
The measures that we use are part of our involvement with the Children and Young People’s Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (CYPIAPT) initiative.
Liverpool CAMHS website is available here: https://www.liverpoolcamhs.com/parents-carers/
Young Minds is leading the movement to make sure every young person gets the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what.
It takes courage to ask for help. But for many young people who do, the support they need just isn’t there.
In the UK today, an estimated five children in every classroom has a mental health problem. A quarter of 17-year-old girls have self-harmed in the last year, while suicide remains the single biggest killer of boys and young men. But things can get better.
We provide young people with tools to look after their mental health. We empower adults to be the best support they can be to the young people in their lives. And we give young people the space and confidence to get their voices heard and change the world we live in.
Together, we can create a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health.
Young Minds Purpose
Every young person whose mental health ends up in crisis is a young person who has been failed. We know that the earlier young people can access the right help, the more likely it is that they can avoid these crises.
Young Minds Vision
A world where feels alone with their mental health.
We want to see a world where every young person who is struggling feels able to reach out, and has people and services around them who can really help.
Young Minds Mission
Whether they need a reassuring conversation, specialist mental health support, or simply the knowledge that they are not alone in how they are feeling, we will make sure that all young people get support that meets them where they’re at as quickly as possible.
Parents / Carers Helpline
Young Minds offers a parents helpline for parents / carers who are worried about a child or young person? You can contact the Parents Helpline for free, confidential advice via the phone, email or webchat:
New Heights School works closely with Liverpool School’s Family Support.
The School’s Family Support Service provides an outreach family support service to families with children of school age (5 – 19 years) as identified by schools.
It is a preventative service and focuses on families where there is no current social work involvement.
The Service offers a full family wrap-around support package using the EHAT (Early Help Assessment Tool) and the Outcome Wheel to measure progress and for families to identify what their needs are.