Getting Help for Your Child’s Mental Health: Where to Start
If you’re worried about your child, you don’t have to work it all out alone. Here are the main routes to support in the UK, from NHS services to choosing a registered private practitioner.
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Please read. This is general information, not medical, legal or professional advice. We’re a directory: we don’t provide therapy, and we don’t recommend, endorse or guarantee any practitioner or register. Always check a practitioner’s registration yourself on the official register before you book. We checked the facts on this page on each organisation’s own website on 21 October 2026, but registers and rules change, so the official website is always the final word.
If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. If you are worried about a child, you can call the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000. Children and young people can call Childline free on 0800 1111. For urgent mental health help that is not an emergency, call NHS 111.
Where to Start
- Your child’s GP. A GP can talk things through and put you in touch with local services.
- Your child’s school or college. A teacher or school nurse can also put you in touch with services. The NHS says some areas have mental health support teams in schools and colleges.
- Refer yourself. The NHS says you can refer yourself to some children and young people’s mental health services. Search online for “children and young people’s mental health services” and the name of your town or county.
NHS Children and Young People’s Services
The NHS says these services differ depending on where you live, and can include mental health support teams in schools, NHS-funded services from local charities and social enterprises, and NHS services often called CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services). Support can include self-help advice, talking therapies such as CBT, counselling and family therapy, and sometimes medicines. Read more on the NHS website.
If You Look Privately
Some parents also look for a private practitioner. Titles such as child counsellor, play therapist and child psychotherapist are not protected by law, so check the person on the register they name. Our guide on which professional to see for your child explains the different roles, and play therapy or child psychotherapy? compares two of them.
Before you book, it’s worth asking about safeguarding, how they involve you, and whether they have a current enhanced DBS check (or the equivalent in Scotland or Northern Ireland). Our printable questions to ask a child’s therapist can help, and you can check any register here.
Talking With Your Child
Every child is different, and there is no right script. It can help to choose a calm moment, listen more than you speak, and let them know they can come back to it. If they don’t want to talk to you, let them know they can talk to Childline, free, on 0800 1111. You can also look at the parents’ pages from YoungMinds, a children’s mental health charity.
Common Questions
Do I need a GP referral for children’s mental health services?
Not always. The NHS says a GP, teacher, school nurse or social worker can put you in touch with local children and young people’s mental health services, and that you can refer your child yourself to some services. Your local service’s website will say whether you can do this in your area.
What age are children’s mental health services for?
The NHS says these services are usually for anyone under 18, and that some can be used up to the age of 25.
Will what my child says be kept private?
The NHS says anything said is confidential unless services are worried about the young person’s safety or someone else’s. Private practitioners will explain their own approach, so ask before you start.
More for Parents and Carers
Sources
Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the NHS, the Health and Care Professions Council, the Professional Standards Authority, the General Medical Council or any professional body or register named here. Last reviewed 21 October 2026.
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