Health and wellbeing

Your Children in Care Council have published a video called 'Hope - A Poem on Mental Health' on YouTube.

You told us:

• “We wanted to spread awareness about mental health, help people and tell people the places where they find help.”
• “We feel very impressed seeing the final video.”
• “We hope our video will spread awareness nationally.”
• “We hope it'll help other young people know where they can go for help.”

It is common for young people who have had difficult early experiences and have been in care to find aspects of life challenging. If you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, worried, unhappy or have any other mental health difficulties contact your GP. They will be able to assess how you are feeling, and recommend certain treatments. For example, talking therapies or medication or refer you to other agencies for support.

There are many online resources to support mental health and wellbeing. The Keep Your Head website brings all this together in one trusted place. It provides local and national contacts for support and counselling or just somebody to talk to.

We have an agreement with Evolve Counselling to provide heavily discounted therapeutic counselling to any of our Care Leavers living in Cambridgeshire or Peterborough. This is income assessed will cost £5 per session if you are on Universal Credit, or slightly more if you are on a higher income. To access this please contact Evolve counselling. 

If you need to speak to someone straight away call The Samaritans and talk to someone anonymously about anything at all.
Telephone 116 123 (free call).

Care Leaver Specific Mental Health Support

The Big Initiative

Access to up to 50 free online courses for Care Leavers. Covering issues such as parenting support, isolation, eating disorders.
Call The Training Hub on 0161 884 3000 and refer to 'Care Leaver' status.

Become

Information and Advice for young people in care or those who have recently left care.
Please call 0800 023 2033 (Monday to Friday, 10.30am to 3pm)

You will have annual health assessments, and a Health Action Plan to ensure your health needs are met.

As you leave ‘care’ you will have an assessment to ensure you understand your own health needs. We can help you to make any necessary arrangements. Staff will work with you to make a ‘health passport’. This contains key information from your childhood, for example, previous immunisations. Your current health needs are also taken into account.

Young people seeking asylum have a health assessment when they first arrive in the UK. This will ensure you to have all the checks that you need. Any injuries from your journey will looked at, as well as helping you adjust to life in the UK.

Your Personal Adviser can help you with the many things, including:

• Information on healthy lifestyles and diet
• Support to register with a GP, dentist and opticians
• Information about health drop-in centres
• Getting help to pay for prescriptions
• Help with transport costs, if needed, for attending health appointments
• Support, if required, to move from CAMHS to adult mental health services
• Information about locally available counselling services
• Priority referrals to agencies providing support with drugs and alcohol.
• If you are pregnant, ensuring you have access to health care and support throughout your pregnancy
• If you are a young parent, taking an interest in your child and supporting you to do the best for them.

Are you are concerned about your drug or alcohol use? Would you like support from a young person’s service rather than adult services? You can ask your Personal Adviser to make a referral to Cambridgeshire Child and Adolescent Substance Use Service (CASUS) on your behalf.

You can get free and confidential support from Inclusion (adult service) if you live in Cambridgeshire. They can arrange for you to see a counsellor near where you live. Call Inclusion on 0300 555 0101

If you live in another county ask your Personal Adviser which service to contact. Or you can look on the NHS website.

Talk to Frank is a national 24-hour drug advice and information line. Telephone 0800 776600

Straight, gay or not sure - 2Byou offers support and friendship to young people 14-24 years old. if you are discovering or questioning your sexuality or gender. Contact The Kite Trust.
Email: info@thekitetrust.org.uk Telephone: 01223 369508.

For individual support for gender diverse and transgender children and young people visit the Mermaids UK website Telephone: 0808 801 0400.

iCaSH offers information, screening and treatment for sexual health issues. For example Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). They also offer free condoms and contraception advice and pregnancy and termination advice. This is a totally confidential service.
Telephone 0300 300 3030 to make an appointment. Services are run from a variety of locations.