Local mental health services

Your GP or school nurse may refer you to a local mental health team or to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). Here you'll be able to see professionals who can help in different ways.

Local mental health teams

The team may include;

• Psychologists - professionals trained in helping people talk through and understand difficult problems. They can help you deal with the things that are causing you to hurt yourself. Psychologists may offer you a treatment called cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). This involves doing practical things like keeping a diary about when you self-harm; thinking about what happens before you want to self-harm; and helping you to find other ways of expressing your feelings
• Community psychiatric nurses - nurses who can offer you support and practical advice at difficult moments as you work through the process of beginning to stop harming
• Psychiatrists - doctors who may talk to you about your problems or who can also prescribe drugs like anti-depressants which may be helpful in the short term.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

CAMHS provide a wide range of services that offer help, support and treatment to children and young people up to the age of 18. Like local health teams they have different specialist staff who can help with lots of different emotional and mental health problems.

Some of these services are based in GP surgeries, health centres or hospitals. Others are based in schools, colleges and universities, youth centres, walk-in centres for young people or counselling centres.

Local health services have different arrangements for the way their teams work. In some places you may be able to talk through your problems with a specially trained nurse. If your local team can't provide the help you need then ask for an assessment by a specialist service.

Counselling - the best thing I ever did

"I am 23 years old, and have not self-harmed for nearly 2 years. I spent a year in counselling before this, and it was the best thing I ever did.

At the time I believed I was wasting people's time, I felt like no-one could understand the way I felt, mainly because I didn't understand it myself! Once I found a counsellor who I got along with (before which I went through 2 others) I realised that that my self-harming was a vent through which I portrayed my inner feelings and frustrations. I still want to cut nearly every other day, but the fact that I have not done it for so long, prevents me from doing it further. I dont need it as a vent for anger.

I have found other ways. i.e talking to people, not necessarily about what i want to do, but about the way I feel, once I have talked to someone about anything (even TV or gossip or news) for a while the urge to hurt myself goes a little bit, and I feel calmer, the urge leaves me. I need a distraction for those few minutes, I need to feel someone cares about what I am saying, even if it is trival. I have always had someone there for me before, but in recent months I have not.

I've been sceptical about calling Samaritans, believing they were very religious and I would only get one point of view, this is not the case. I recently hit rock bottom (which although I am generally okay now, sometimes happens). All they did was listen and support, of which I was so gratefull for. I needed someone to listen and understand, where no-one else could, they gave me a sounding board which I so needed. I still believe to this day that I am on the mend, I need to understand that the odd set back does not need to affect my entire outlook on the future. Things will continue to be on the up, so long as I let them!"

> British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
Provides information on counselling and therapy and lists local therapists.