Your initial request for support will be received by our Single Point of Access team. They  may decide you would benefit from an assessment. 

We’ll start by inviting you for an initial meeting we call an assessment as soon as we can (normally within 4 weeks). This could be a virtual, telephone or face to face appointment.

This is a chance for us to get to know you and understand what’s going on in your life. We’ll talk about the challenges you’ve been facing, what you’d like to change and how we might help with achieving your goals. 

We’ll ask you questions about your experiences at home, school and with your family and friends. You can also ask us questions. Together we will decide what the next best step is for you.

You may find that this initial meeting is all that you need. We may also signpost you to an appropriate service. We may also decide with you that a few sessions with our interventions team would be helpful.

We will find the best option for you based on your individual needs. 

As a community service, we have a number of bases across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

This includes:

• St David’s Hospital (Cardiff)
• University Hospital Llandough (Penarth)
• Cowbridge Health Centre (Cowbridge)

We currently accept requests for support from professionals including:

• GPs
• Health visitors
• Social workers 
• School nurses 
• Other health professionals 

We work with children and young people up to their 18th birthday who are experiencing challenges with their emotional wellbeing and mental health. 

For children under 16, we need the consent of a legally responsible parent or carer.

Please ensure that the contact details you provide the professional requesting support for you are correct. We use these to contact you. If they are incorrect, you may not receive an appointment. 

If you want to get in contact, you can call 02921 836730 between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday to Fridays (excluding bank holidays).

Please bear in mind that this is not a crisis service.

We provide assessments and care in the community to children and young people who are referred to Specialist CAMHS and who have severe mental illness and complex needs.

You’ll first be invited for an initial meeting called a choice appointment with Specialist CAMHS, where we’ll talk about the difficulties you’ve been having, what you’d like to change and how we might help with this. Your practitioner will then refer you to the CITT team.

We aim to meet you for a first face to face assessment within 5 working days of discussing your referral as a team. Following this first session, we can complete a more thorough assessment for very complex needs over six weeks if there is a need for a diagnosis.

We will work with you to create a care plan about what to expect from your treatment, how you can look after yourself and the goals you would like to achieve. We will also deliver therapeutic interventions based on your needs.

We will work with you until you are stable and can be stepped down to Specialist CAMHS, Primary Mental Health or Adult Mental Health Services for the next stage of your emotional wellbeing journey. This is a good thing as it means that you are making progress towards your goals and are ready for the next step.

We are based at St David’s Hospital in Cardiff, but we work with children and young people in their local community.

Our team supports children and young people up to their 18th birthday who are already working with Specialist CAMHS and who suffer with mental health disorders that require more intensive assessment and intervention.

We do not:

• Assess anyone over 18 years
• Assess children / young people in the absence of a mental illness
• Assess children / young people where the primary problem is due to use of psychoactive substance and / or social problems
• Assess children / young people as an emergency before a referral has been discussed in team meeting

This is a specialist service that can only be accessed by referral from Specialist CAMHS practitioners and CAMHS Inpatient Services.

If our team can help meet your needs, you will first be invited to a full Specialist CAMHS assessment known as a choice appointment.

We work 9 am – 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

We support young people aged 11-18 years who are struggling with their emotional wellbeing by connecting them to opportunities in their local community.  

Our Community Connectors get to know the young person by listening to their needs, discussing the challenges they may face and identifying goals they want to work on.  

We then work together with the young person to create a plan to help improve their wellbeing by connecting them to local groups and activities. This could include: 

• making new friends,  
• volunteering,  
• exercising,  
• getting out in nature or  
• exploring new hobbies.  

We will have an initial phone call with the young person to make sure: 

• We are the right team to support them 
• The young person fully understands what we are offering, and  
• The young person wants to participate  

We will then meet the young person regularly over a 12-week period. 

Our community connectors can help by: 

•  providing their knowledge about local activities,  
• supporting the young person to attend any groups or activities,  
• helping them to identify and overcome challenges to their emotional wellbeing.

We are based in St David’s Hospital in Cardiff. 

However, we will meet young people online, in their schools, at home or in their local community – wherever they feel safe and comfortable. 

The service is for 11 to 18-year olds who are experiencing low-level challenges to their emotional wellbeing.  

This could include social isolation, low-level anxiety, bullying or low self-esteem. 

We do not meet with any young person who is experiencing more complex or severe mental health issues. 

Currently, a request for support needs to be made to the Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Single Point of Access team for a young person to access Community Connections.  

Referrals can come from professionals in health and social settings such as GPs, social workers, head teachers and school nurses. 

If the Single Point of Access thinks that our team could be beneficial for you, you will be invited for an initial phone call to talk about your needs, goals and whether Community Connections is the service best placed to work together with you on these.  

We work 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday. 

We provide mental health assessments for young people in hospital, GP surgeries and custody suites.

An assessment is a chance for a young person to talk with a practitioner about what they’re feeling, the impact on their life and what goals they want to achieve. We will complete this assessment within 48 hours of the referral.

After the assessment, we will talk to you, your family and anyone who’s been involved with your care about next steps. This could include:

• Directing you to other services
• Intensive follow up support with the Crisis Liaison Team
• Admitting you to supportive accommodation or a CAMHS or Adult Mental Health Services in-patient facility

We’ll also tell the person who referred you to us what happened and what we have recommended to you.

We’re based at St David’s Hospital in Cardiff, but we will go to the young person experiencing a mental health crisis to assess them and come up with a plan.

The service is for children and young people up to their 18^th birthday who present in crisis (have an emergency mental health issue). We only assess people aged over 18 if it is identified in their transition plan to Adult Mental Health Services.

We will not assess young people under the influence of drugs and / or alcohol.

We will only assess children and young people undergoing medical intervention for physical health problems if they are also having an emergency mental health need and are at risk to themselves or others

This is a specialist service and can only be accessed via referral from a professional or partner organisation. This includes:

• Accident and Emergency departments
• Hospital wards
• Police and staff working in custody suites
• Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health services
• GPs

The Crisis Liaison Team works from 9 am – 9: 30 pm 7 days a week.

When we receive your referral, we’ll start by inviting you by letter or telephone for an initial meeting called a choice appointment.

We’ll talk about the difficulties you’ve been having, what you’d like to change and how we might help with this.

We’ll also talk about how you and your family’s strengths and skills may help the situation. We’ll talk to you about how we will work together on the difficulties you’re facing and the goals you want to achieve.

After the choice appointment, we’ll assign a practitioner to lead your care that has the skills and experience to meet your needs.

We’ll ask you to attend sessions once or twice a week to start with, so that we can talk to you about what’s going on with you and keep an eye on your physical wellbeing through regular weighings and medical checks.

The support you receive in your sessions will vary depending on what you need. We have a Family Therapy pathway that involves your family members in your care, and an Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy pathway that is adapted for your individual needs.

We have strong connections with staff at Adult Mental Health Services, University Hospital Wales, and Ty Llidiard. Even if you experience a change in your care, such as transitioning to Adult Mental Health or needing to stay in hospital to look after your physical health, we will continue to support you and be part of your care.

We’re based at St David’s Hospital in Cardiff.

This is a specialist service, accessed via Specialist CAMHS, and can only be accessed via referral from a professional or partner organisation. This includes:

• Accident and Emergency departments
• Hospital wards
• Police and staff working in custody suites
• Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health services
• GPs

This is not a crisis service.

If you are working with us and need to get in contact, you can call 02921 836795 between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday to Fridays (excluding bank holidays).

Our address is St David’s Hospital, Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF11 9XB

We invite all adults supporting children who live in care to attend our Enfys Group. This is a 6-week programme based on the Nurturing Attachments Group devised by Kim Golding (DDP Consultant). We also offer specific workshops on understanding regulation, food and sleep issues for children who have experienced trauma.

The majority of the children we support have an allocated social worker. In order to receive support from the Enfys Team, we first invite a conversation between ourselves and the child’s social worker at one of our weekly Advice and Support consultations.

After this initial conversation, where we decide together on how best to work together to meet the child/family’s needs, we may then offer ongoing support to parents/carers, meet with the rest of the system (e.g. school), work directly with the family, offer therapy, and so on.

The team are trained in specialist, evidence-based therapies for trauma.

Our offices are at Woodland House in the Heath area of Cardiff but we work with families and children wherever suits them best e.g. at home, school, community setting.  

We also co-locate with our social work colleagues in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. 

The best way to contact us for any query is via email at enfys.cav@wales.nhs.uk 

Please email us at enfys.cav@wales.nhs.uk 

The team supports young people who are experiencing high levels of distress, many of whom have sought safety in the Emergency Department.

Our clinical vision is that we are formulation-driven, attachment and relationship-focused and are trauma and mental health specialists. The team consists of Occupational Therapists, Graduate Mental Health Workers, Clinical Psychologists, Social Work Assistants and Education Co-ordinators. We work in partnership with our Children’s Services colleagues in Cardiff and the Vale. The needs of the young people that we support are best understood through a developmental trauma lens and we ask, ‘What has happened to you?’ not ‘What is wrong with you?’.

Our aim is to work alongside other professionals to co-produce a trauma-informed understanding of the young person’s story so that we can make sense of the function of a young person’s observable behaviours.

Our goal in supporting the system that surrounds the young person is to soothe and contain distress by assisting it in ‘holding on’ to these young people.

The Hangout offers the following support:

• Drop-in support (at any point during opening hours)
• Scheduled sessions with our wellbeing team
• Wellbeing-focused groups
• Group activity sessions
• Volunteering opportunities

Drop-in: Mental health support, as well as information about the groups and volunteering opportunities available, can be accessed on a drop-in basis. Young people can access the hub at any point during opening hours to discuss what may be helpful for them with our team.

Young people who have been referred to mental health services and are waiting to be seen or are in-between appointments can also use The Hangout to access additional support.

Scheduled support and referrals: It’s also possible to schedule mental health support sessions. This can be done either through self-referral or referral by a professional who is working or supporting a young person.

Referrals can also be made for access to groups, general support or simply to come and get familiar with the space and the things we offer — this may be helpful if a young person doesn’t feel comfortable attending a drop-in.

The Hangout can be found at 26-28 Churchill Way and is open every day from 3pm to 9pm. They are also open on bank holidays apart from Christmas Day (25/12), Boxing Day (26/12) and New Year’s Day (1/01).

However, a reduced service between Christmas and New Year will be available so please contact the team to find out what support is available in December.

The Hangout is a place where young people can meet other people, find volunteering opportunities and get involved in groups that could really help boost their wellbeing.

No referral is needed to visit — young people can drop-in at any time.

To find out more:

Visit:      The Hangout – Platfform 4YP

Email:    hangout@platfform.org  

Call:       0300 3732717

The Hangout team work closely with our other Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health services for children and young people within Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. This means they are able to talk with other services to make sure young people receive the best support from the right people at the right time to ensure a holistic and complimentary approach to care delivered.

Referral forms:

Once a referral form is completed, The Hangout team will contact the young person within 3 days to arrange an initial session on-site.

Self-referral: The Hangout – Get support (for young people) (office.com)

Referral by support staff: The Hangout – get support for a young person (for those working with young people) (office.com)

We know that needing to wait can be challenging when you’ve asked for help, but we will try to see you as soon as we can.

If you are waiting and need some support, you can contact our Single Point of Access team by calling 02921 836730 Monday to Friday between 9 am – 5 pm (excluding bank holidays).

We offer a range of interventions using a variety of techniques. This is likely to be through group work initially, which may be followed by individual work if needed.

At the beginning of your journey with us, we will help you to set goals we are able to support you with achieving. We will review these regularly and if needed we will adapt your care.

When you come to the end of your journey with us, we will take the time to review and plan your next steps.

During your assessment, you and your practitioner may have identified that you need further support from us. If this is the case, you will likely have to go on an intervention waiting list.

Please ensure that the contact details you provide the professional requesting support for you are correct. We use these to contact you. If they are incorrect, you may not receive an appointment.

As a community service, we have a number of bases across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. 

 This includes: 

• St David’s Hospital (Cardiff) 
• University Hospital Llandough (Penarth) 
• Cowbridge Health Centre (Cowbridge) 

If you want to get in contact, you can call 02921 836730 between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday to Fridays (excluding bank holidays).

Please bear in mind that this is not a crisis service.

We work in every secondary school across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, including Pupil Referral Units and Out of School Tutoring Services.

We attend termly prioritisation meetings with education staff in secondary schools where we discuss the needs of individual learners, staff and the school as a whole.

• Education staff already know the young people in their setting and may have trusted relationships with them. Our team learn a lot from hearing what is going on in school, what is working well or has already been tried and where there may still be some challenges. This helps us to understand what else might help. Other professionals, such as school nurses or educational psychologists may also be part of these meetings so that a plan of support can be made to provide the right help at the right time.

• From these prioritisation meetings, we offer training, resources and consultation to education staff. These could focus on helping a particular young person or helping the setting to deliver a positive, mentally health environment for all learners and staff.

• We may also provide a whole system assessment to the young person and their family to inform whether direct work (i.e. joining a group or 1-2-1 sessions) would also be helpful.

• We offer consultations, groups about emotional literacy and access to our locality wide training to primary schools.

We are continuing to develop our offer in response to the needs of schools, learners and staff across Cardiff and the Vale.

We are based at Ely & Caerau Children’s Centre, but our staff spend most of their time visiting the schools in their community, working directly with learners and staff.

All secondary schools in Cardiff and Vale can request support from their locality In-Reach team. For more information on the localities please see our first newsletter.

Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest updates on School In-Reach developments.

A significant portion of our work is working with education staff to deliver training, consultation and reflective practice as part of providing a whole school approach to emotional and mental wellbeing.

This work benefits learners and staff working in the education setting, even if young people do not directly work with one of our practitioners.

It may be that School In-Reach is best placed to support the learner, but the In-Reach practitioner may feel support is best provided by another service or organisation.

It could also be that the In-Reach practitioner works to build the capacity and confidence of those already involved with the learner, rather than introducing another person.

We encourage schools and other education settings to contact their named practitioners directly.

Education staff can also contact School In-Reach on schoolinreach.cav@wales.nhs.uk

Life can be tough for children and young people. There’s pressure from school, home and friends on top of everything else. It’s normal to feel lost and overwhelmed – your school nurse is there to listen and talk to you about anything that’s on your mind, including:

• Your emotional wellbeing and how you’re feeling
• Keeping healthy – physically, emotionally and sexually
• Sexual health
• Changes to your body
• Bullying
• Drugs and alcohol
• Vaccinations and immunisations

We also offer the Chat Health service. Any young person aged 11 – 19 years old can text their school nurse for confidential advice and support. You can ask them about anything you’d usually speak to your school nurse about in person.

Our school nurses spend most of their time in schools working with young people.

School nurses visit their schools every week. Ask your teacher or school wellbeing lead on how to see your school nurse.

Any young person can speak to their school nurse, either through school or via the Chat Health texting service. To message a school nurse via Chat Health, text 07520 615718 between 8:30 to 4:30 pm on Monday to Fridays (excluding bank holidays).

If you are working with another service, you can also continue to see your school nurse at the same time.

Ask your teacher or school wellbeing lead on how to see your school nurse.

To message a school nurse via Chat Health, text 07520 615718 between 8:30 to 4:30 pm on Monday to Fridays (excluding bank holidays).