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What is CAMHS?
MFT CAMHS is a specialist NHS service that helps children and young people experiencing mental, emotional or behavioural difficulties that interfere with their daily lives. We provide services across Manchester, Salford and Trafford for children and young people aged up to 18 years. We can offer assessment, diagnosis and support through talking therapies, advice, and sometimes medication. We also work with families and schools to support children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. The main goal is to help children and young people build on their strengths, resilience, and thrive in everyday life.
Our services are organised around the Thrive Framework. The framework emphasizes shared decision-making, community-based support, and empowering families to be active participants in their care journey. The Thrive framework consists of Getting Advice, Getting Help, Getting More Help, and Getting Risk Support components.
Some of our CAMHS services provide advice and signposting to community services. We share information to help children, young people and their families find the best ways to support their mental health and wellbeing – this is particularly helpful for children and young people experiencing mild/moderate or short-term difficulties, as well as those with ongoing difficulties who manage their own health.
Some of our CAMHS services support children, young people, and families who would benefit from targeted, evidence-based support with clear goals and ways to measure progress. This is particularly helpful for children and young people experiencing mild/moderate or short-term difficulties who would benefit from direct support for a limited time.
Some of our CAMHS services support children, young people and families whose needs are complex or acute – this might involve having multiple professionals involved in a child or young person’s care from various organisations and/or within the CAMHS team.
Some of our CAMHS services support children, young people, and families who need urgent help or present with significant risk. For various reasons, some children, young people and families have not benefited from previous support and therefore input from CAMHS is mainly risk management, crisis response and supporting the network.
Supporting Young Persons Mental Health throughout Manchester, Trafford & Salford
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Frequently Asked Questions
If you already know which CAMHS team you need, visit their page on this website to find out how to make a referral.
If you’re not sure whether a CAMHS referral is right for you right now, check out our Advice section. You’ll find self-help tips, local support options, and information about how to get referred to CAMHS if you decide that’s the next step.
If you’re under 16, your parent or carer usually needs to agree to the referral.
If you’re 16 or 17, you can normally give your own consent, but it’s often helpful if your parent or carer is involved too.
If you understand what the referral means — including the risks and benefits — you can usually make that decision yourself. If not, your parent or carer will need to give consent for you.
Yes. The information we have about you and your family or carers is kept private within MFT CAMHS and GMMH Services (if they’re involved).
We would only share information if we’re really worried that you or someone else might be at risk of harm. This is because we have a duty of care to help keep you and others safe.
Whenever possible, we’ll explain what we need to share, why, and who with — before we do it.
It depends on the team or service. Some CAMHS teams have a waiting list, and some don’t — and waiting times can be longer for certain services than others.
We know waiting can be hard, and we want you to feel supported while you wait. You can find ideas for support and self-help in the Advice section, and waiting time information for Core CAMHS and Neurodevelopmental services can be found here.
Whether you want to share something that’s gone well or talk about something you’re unhappy with, we want to hear from you. You can ask to speak to the service lead for your CAMHS team first — they might be able to sort things out quickly.
If this doesn’t resolve your concern, you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). PALS can help you share a complaint, compliment, or general feedback. They can listen to your concerns or feedback, give advice, and help you make a complaint if you want to.
You can find the contact details for MFT PALS on their website, or on this leaflet.
Your feedback — good or bad — helps us make CAMHS better for everyone.