Kooth CAMHS Support
If you are a child or young person in crisis, you can call the crisis care line 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 0808 196 3550, but you should only present to Accident Emergency Department if you need medical treatment or are struggling to keep yourself safe in the immediate moment.
Kooth CAMHS support provides free, safe and anonymous online support for young people.
What do you do?
On Kooth, children and young people in Liverpool aged 10-25 will have 24-hour access to self-help materials as well as goal-setting and mood-tracking tools. The online service hosts moderated forums, allowing for peer-to-peer support and interactive messaging with counsellors. Users are also able to drop in or book anonymous online counselling sessions with qualified therapists who are available in the evenings and at weekends; sessions are available on weekdays from 12 pm and 10 pm, and from 6 pm to 10 pm on weekends.
How can children and young people access Kooth CAMHS support?
Self-referral online. www.kooth.com
Our I&P workers also visit GP practices, CAMHS, schools, FE, and many other service providers. Kooth works best when offered as a collaborative approach with other service providers.
What kinds of things do you help with?
- Live chat function for a young person to converse with a qualified counsellor.
- Messaging function for the young person to contact the service. These are monitored and managed by counsellors, emotional wellbeing practitioners and media workers.
- Static and live topic-focused forums; forums encourage the development of a peer-supported community online.
- An online magazine containing a wealth of topic-specific resources, from mental health-specific topics to more general subjects such as holidays, family, and relationships. Over 50% of the content is contributed by service users, all of which is moderated before being published.
- Crisis information and self-help resources.
What does Kooth CAMHS support offer?
Early Intervention and Prevention
Mental health stigma is a common barrier to mental health services, which prevents many young people accessing services at an early enough stage for it to be considered early intervention or prevention. Kooth provides a secure, safe, accessible space, where all content is moderated to assure the protection of all service users.
Outcome Informed, User Led
At Kooth, we collaborate with young people to understand how the service can meet their needs, and stay current to the generation we are serving. To assure clinical outcomes, and benefit of the service within the wider child and young people’s mental health landscape, online-appropriate outcomes measures are used.
Choice
Support for service users can be accessed through engaging with a counsellor through chat messages, writing and responding to (pre-moderated) forum posts, writing and reading (pre-moderated) magazine articles, messaging the team, and writing a personal online journal.
Autonomy
Anonymous at point of registration, Kooth is viewed by many young people as an extension of their largely digital lives, where accessibility to a range needs-appropriate features, including counselling are available. Using goals-based outcomes, and the premise of logging in for a scheduled or drop-in chat means that young people are in control of their therapeutic journey.
Flexibility
Every Kooth user is unique, some will visit once and read an article, another will use the service for two years and engage with other agencies with the support of Kooth; a person-centred approach is used for all service users.
Do you offer training in your specialist area?
Yes, Our I&P worker Emily Hawley is available to train staff at a time to suit you. Emily’s contact details are ehawley@xenzone.com 07495 099175.
