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My first visit

Please don’t feel worried about your first visit with us, all of our staff are here to help you.

You’ll meet our friendly receptionist who’ll let your CAMHS worker know you’ve arrived. Our waiting room has plenty of books, toys and games for you to use while you wait for your CAMHS worker. Please feel free to bring your own if you wish. We promise not to keep you waiting too long.

Your CAMHS worker will invite you into one of our quieter rooms where you can talk without being disturbed. Your mum, dad or carer will be able to come with you.

You will usually be invited to come and see us at our main base, but we can come and see you at places that are easier for you and your family to get to, such as your school or local health centre. We’ll talk with you about where will be best place for us to meet.

When we first meet we’ll like to get to know you and find out what life has been for you. We’ll ask you some questions and get you and your family to fill out some forms about your worries and difficulties so that we can offer you the best help possible. You’ll also be able to talk to your CAMHS worker by yourself if you want to.

Your CAMHS worker might ask you about:

  • The problems, worries and feelings you’re having
  • Your family
  • Your school and friends
  • Your interests and hobbies and what you enjoy doing
  • Things you are good at and the things you’re not so good at
  • What you’d like to change or what you think you need help with.

You might have lots of questions for us too and there will be plenty of time for you to ask these. You might find it useful to think about these before your visit and write them down to bring with you.

All of the things you talk about with your CAMHS worker will stay private; they won’t be shared with anyone else unless you want them to know. We will only share what you tell us if we think we need to so that we keep you or someone else safe, but we will always tell you first if this might happen.

At the end of your first visit, you and your CAMHS worker will make a plan about what happens next and arrange another visit if you need to come back and see us again. We might also talk to you about who else in our team would be useful for you to meet.