Mental health - children and young people
Find out about the support services available for children and young people in Bradford and district.
Bradford also has some risk factors which increase the likelihood of poor mental health and wellbeing, in particular the high number of children living in poverty and disadvantaged circumstances. One in 10 children in the Bradford City area, need support for mental health issues.
The child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) helps children and young people (up to 16 years old, or 18 years if still at school) where there are long standing concerns about emotional well-being and behaviours.
You can be referred to CAMHS by a variety of health professionals including GPs, hospital doctors, school nurses and health visitors. If you, or your parent or carer, would find it helpful to speak to somebody at CAMHS, please speak to your doctor or school nurse who will be able to advise you further.
Further information about the CAMHS service can be found on the Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust website.
The Thrive Bradford website has been built by young people at Barnardo's to help other young people get through their teenage years. The website has information and advice, signposting to services and real stories.
“Thrive is important because it is about a website that is created to help young people who are struggling both physically and mentally. It is unique as it was made by young people who are also struggling with physical health and emotional /mental health difficulties and who really understand what the needs of those that would use the site, are. The site is purposefully created to advise young people how to live a healthy lifestyle.
The idea came from years of work that Barnardo’s have done with the health services in Bradford. More and more Transitions became a really important area to improve for young people and after a presentation to the CCG’s that brought this topic up the CCG’s decided to listen to us and create a tool that would help young people in Bradford and raise awareness of the difficulties that we face and struggle with on a day to day basis.
Getting involved in a project like this is great. It shows teenagers who do not know how to have a healthy mind and life, how to live and be happy, what to do. By being involved we realise that someone is there to hear us and people Barnardo’s, the CCG’s really care about making things better for us.
Thrive Bradford can change the way young people think about their health and about themselves.
I helped develop the website by sharing information about the challenges we face during puberty and growing into adulthood. I suggested the topics, helped with the beta testing and have helped raise awareness at events that this website exists by promoting it to school children.
We came up with the themes of the site by looking at the ages 13 – 19 years old. During these ages many young people struggle with depression, loneliness and other issues which may lead to bad lifestyle. I came up with some of the themes so that the problems can be tackled quickly before it gets serious. If care is not taken young people lives will be destroyed.
Thrive Bradford is different because it contains lots of information designed by mental health services (CAMHS) in partnership with young people. I have used this website to help me. When I am going through a tough time it does help me to think positively, to know where to get help from and the tips help how to overcome how I am feeling.
I would tell all young people to use the site and if it helps them they should tell their friends and relatives about it."
“The Thrive Bradford website is a website that gives you tips on every day life struggles. We had the idea of a website because many people have mobile phones and use the internet and we thought it would be useful for people to get the help this way.
I wanted to get involved in this project because I knew it would attract people and help people out.
Getting involved in this project was great because I really like to help other people and I knew it would be a way that I could do this and male a real difference to people’s lives. I helped plan what would be on the website, the look of it and beta tested how easy it was to use. Barnardo’s and the design agency really listened to what I and all of us had to say. I felt very important in the project and I feel proud of it all because I know it will help people.
We came up with the different sections of the site because lots of young people were asked to put their thoughts and how they feel into the website and these were the areas that are very important in our lives as we grow up. It is really relevant to us and the help we need!”
“The Thrive Bradford website is important for young people because it gives young people lots to look at so they get the help that they need . As young people we decided it would be better for it to be a website rather than an app as everyone can get to use it rather than those with just smart phones.
I wanted to get involved in the development of this site because it sounds like a good thing to be involved with and it motivates me to know that it would help people in the future. Getting involved in this type of project means a lot to me because now I know that there is a website out there for young people in Bradford like myself. Thrive is different from other websites as it covers lots of different topics relevant to young people and it is local to Bradford. I think everyone should give Thrive Bradford a go and am sure people would use it for a long time to come for their support needs once they have discovered it!”