Who are Children and Young People Crisis Care Service?
The Crisis Service will work with you and your family, offering short-term help, if you are experiencing a mental health crisis. This can look and feel different for everyone. Essentially, if you or your carer feels that you are not safe at home due to your mental health then we can help.
We receive referrals from lots of different professionals some of which are:
- NHS 111 option 2 for mental health if you phone for support
- Your CAMHS worker
- Other services within CAMHS like EMERGE, Community Eating Disorders or the Early Intervention Team
- The All-Age Mental Health Liaison Team in A&E
We will usually come and see you at home either the same day or within 24 hours. During our first appointment we will:
- introduce ourselves,
- ask you about what is happening for you,
- work with you and your parent/carer on a plan to keep you safe
- give you the opportunity to be able to ask us any questions you might have.
We will typically see you every day for the first four days and work with you to build strategies to cope with your distress, both now and in the future. We can also work with your parents/carers to help them understand how they can best help you too. If it is not possible to see you at home, we can come to school or college or even meet you somewhere in the community such as a library or coffee shop.
Some of the young people we support only need short term help for as little as four days and others may need up to six weeks. We will work with you to decide which is the best option for you and how often you feel you need for us to see you.
Some of the common strategies we might use to support you are:
- Personalised support sessions – this means we’ll talk together about what you’re going through right now and find ways to help you cope when things feel really difficult.We’ll use different ideas and skills from therapies like CBT (which helps you understand patterns in your thoughts and relationships) and DBT (which helps you manage strong emotions and build coping skills).
- We might help you to access the community, i.e. go shopping, or join a youth group if this is something you are finding difficult.
- We will regularly, usually at least weekly, review and develop your ‘safety plan’, so that you and others are empowered and know what to do if you feel unsafe and reduce the frequency and /or severity of harm you may experience or cause yourself.
- We also have an occupational therapist who might work with you. They can help if things feel overwhelming and everyday routines—like sleeping, eating, going to school, or calming your body—have become really hard. Their job is to support you in finding practical ways to feel more in control and safe again
While we’re working with you, we might also ask other services to help support you for a bit longer. This could include our Core CAMHS team, Safe Zones/42nd Street, or people at your school or college. We will only talk to them if you agree. We might speak to these other services because they can offer extra help, check in with you more often, or give support that carries on after our time with you finishes, so you don’t feel like you’re managing everything on your own.
Location
We are based in Wythenshawe but travel throughout Manchester, Salford and Trafford to see you at a location that best suits you.
Our People
We have lots of different professionals in our team which includes:
- Consultant
- Team Managers
- Clinical Leads
- Mental Health Practitioners
- Occupational Therapists
- Youth Support Workers
- Administrators
Having different professionals with different experience and skills means that we can match you up with a small team that can help you with the specific things you need and to make sure the support you receive is consistent. We will give you a staff leaflet that tells you who we have in our team and some information about them.
In need of urgent help?
Get Urgent Help NowAccess to the Crisis Care Service
All referrals into our service must come from a professional who has seen you. This might be your CAMHS Case Manager or a Mental health Practitioner from Mental Health Liaison within the hospital. We also accept professional referrals from NHS 111 option 2 for mental health and other CAMHS services like the Early Intervention Team and Emerge.
Our service is open from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week, all year round — including bank holidays. Between 8pm and 10pm we offer telephone support only. During the day, usually between 9am and 5pm, we visit young people either at home or in their school or college. Visits starting around 5pm are still routine for us, and sometimes we may begin a little later, but we rarely start a visit after 6pm. Most visits last about an hour, although they can be shorter or longer depending on what you need. You and your family or carers can call us for support at any time during our opening hours, and we can also schedule a support call with you if that feels more helpful.
For professionals, we accept referrals between the hours of 8am and 8pm and between 8pm and 10pm we offer professional consultation and support to our current case load.
Waiting Times
We do not have a waiting list as we are an urgent service. This means that we will see you on the same day as the referral is made and accepted or within 24 hours depending on the time of day the referral is made. If you are waiting until the following day for your appointment, we will always call you to give you advice on how to keep safe until we see you.
Frequently Asked Questions
On your first appointment a Mental Health Practitioner will come to see you at home. They will introduce themselves and tell you about the service. They will ask you questions about what is happening for you and work with you to make a plan to keep you safe. They might also speak with your parents/carers to support with this, such as sharing a safety plan. They will bring you a copy of our team leaflet that introduces you to people that you may meet. It will have some information about everyone so you will see what they look like and some things that they like.
We help young people who are going through really tough moments with their mental health. This might mean you’re feeling unsafe, overwhelmed, or scared by your thoughts or feelings. You might be having strong urges to hurt yourself, finding it hard to cope right now, or feeling so worried or low that everything feels too much.
Our job is to support you when things feel like an emergency. We listen to what’s going on, help you feel safe, and work with you to plan for what you need next. Everything we do is shaped around you, and we’ll make sure your voice is heard in every decision.
We generally work with young people between four days and up to six weeks, but this can be flexible and depends on what is right for you. We can offer visits up to four times a week, depending on what support is required.
Confidentiality means that what you share with your worker stays private. We won’t tell other people what you’ve said unless we’re really worried about your safety or someone else’s. If we ever do need to share something to help keep you safe, we will always talk with you first, explain why, and listen to how you want it to be shared.
Sometimes we might need to work with other people who support you — like your school or college, your family, or other mental health services. If we think sharing information could help you, we’ll explain this clearly and only do it with your consent. You’re always part of the conversation, and your views matter.
We will always do our best to make sure you are seeing someone who you feel comfortable with. This may be someone who you have previously worked with under Crisis Care and had built a good relationship with. It may be that you have seen the staff leaflet and identified a team member who has the same interests as you. Whilst we will always try to make these requests happen, although dependent on our teamwork shifts, it may not always be possible to arrange.
We always try to ensure that you see the same small group of people to make things easier for you and so you don’t feel you have to repeat your story multiple times.
You can access us using one of the referral routes detailed above. This might include calling NHS 111 option 2 or by talking to your CAMHS worker. Sometimes young people have more than one period of care with us, and this is fine. It may be that you are experiencing a different crisis, need help to revisit strategies or need new ways to help you manage.
When your time with our crisis team comes to an end, we will always arrange a follow-up appointment with the Core CAMHS team where you live. This is part of our standard operating procedure, and it helps keep you safe. Crisis teams support you during emergencies, but guidance for mental health care says it’s really important that you have ongoing support afterwards — especially if things have felt unsafe or overwhelming.
A planned follow-up means someone will continue checking in with you, helping you use your safety plan, and offering longer-term support. Without this, there is a risk you might feel alone with your worries or unsure who to turn to if things get difficult again — and we never want that to happen.
Core CAMHS is part of the same division as our crisis team. This means they can, if needed, see the information already in your records so you don’t have to repeat everything. When we first start working with you, we’ll explain exactly how this works and check that you’re happy with the plan before anything is shared.