Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Halton provided by Mersey Care

Service available in:

Who we are

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services - also known as CAMHS - support children and young people up to age 18 with their emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

When we talk about your mental health, we mean how you feel and how you cope with the things going on in your life. This could be connected to anything from school, your friends or even your family life. If you feel you aren’t coping too well with the ups and downs of life, it may be that you need some support to help you manage them better.

If you do need help, CAMHS will work together with you and your family to decide what support you need to have good mental health and wellbeing. Their aim is to help young people get the support they need to tackle any problems early on before they get worse, and to act quickly if they do.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Halton Borough Council, local schools, school nurses, social services and other local organisations all work closely together to provide CAMHS services across Halton, to make sure you can access the right support, in the right place and at the right time.

If you have any questions you can call us on 01928 568 162. Your parents or carers can also call us too if they’d like to speak to someone.

We also accept referrals from other health professionals who may be working with you, such as your GP, health visitor, school nurse or social worker. If you are a health professional and would like to make a referral for one of your patients, visit the health professionals section of our website to download the referral form.

HeadzUp Halton

Practical information

Our Halton CAMHS Community Team is based at Thorn Road Clinic in Runcorn. Thorn Road Clinic has free parking for staff and visitors.

Lottie Mayers Animal Therapy-22.jpg Kyra Nix Animal Therapy-12.jpg Leon Nix Animal Therapy-5.jpg

The sessions are for children and young people who use mental health services at Mersey Care.

Monthly sessions are part of care and treatment and completely free.

We use animal sessions to help young people relax, socialise, communicate, and learn social skills that can help you recover or help you to cope with ongoing mental health symptoms. It’s a very relaxing and enjoyable session which can have a positive effect on your wellbeing and resilience.

The sessions are put together by the Home Safari Animal Assisted Therapy Service in partnership with Mersey Care and have already had a significant impact on the patients, including:

One young person struggling with social anxiety has started to engage well after attending only three of the animal therapy sessions
Another also benefitted from the sessions with their parent saying: “My child’s tics reduced, almost stopped during the session"
A third child with multiple complex needs is now able to tolerate being around a large group of people, including other children, which is something they have never been able to do previously after just a few sessions with the animals.

One parent told us this is the happiest day of their week.

You can drop in, there is no need to book, and each group has around 12 to 15 people. You will be able to Ethan Hawksey Animal Therapy-16.jpg interact with animals, which may involve holding, petting and grooming. There is a wide range of animals from rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas and other critters, there is an animal for everyone, and you’re under no pressure to take part.