READ MORE: Baton of Hope to be carried by Cumbrian NHS staff<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n “Referrals to our children\u2019s learning disability and ADHD services continue to rise, reflecting the growing national demand for support. Meanwhile, referrals to CAMHS have remained static over the last year.”\n<\/p>\n
Community mental health support in Cumbria<\/p>\n
\n PAC Therapy, based\u00a0in Carlisle, provides\u00a0free counselling and therapy\u00a0to children and young people.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity has been operating for more 40 years but has been led more recently by\u00a0Charity Director,\u00a0Jen Chambers.![\"Jen]()
Jen Chambers, Charity Director at PAC Therapy in Carlisle (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Chambers said services like hers are in\u00a0high\u00a0demand and\u00a0the most common\u00a0factors affecting young people’s mental health\u00a0change over\u00a0time.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “There was a period after Covid-19 where it really sky-rocketed.\n<\/p>\n
\n “At one point, there was a lot of young people not going back to school. We had a lot of young people that wouldn’t leave the house.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We’re getting a lot of referrals coming through that feature self-harm and suicidal ideation.”\n<\/p>\n
\n “We link-in with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and that’s helping all services involved to better manage waiting lists.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There are positive things happening to enable young people to get to the support that they need. The communication is getting in place between sectors now to hopefully streamline it for the young person.”\n<\/p>\n
Cumberland: a\u00a0joined-up approach<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Emma]()
Emma Williamson, Non-Statutory Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, Family Wellbeing and Housing at Cumberland Council (Image: Cumberland Council) Cumberland Council\u00a0is “working closely” with cross-sector partners on the factors impacting young people.\n<\/p>\n
\n Councillor\u00a0Emma\u00a0Williamson, Children’s Services, Family Wellbeing and Housing\u00a0Portfolio Holder said:\u00a0“We know mental health challenges in children and young people can be influenced by a range of factors \u2013 including social pressures, family circumstances, the impact of the pandemic, and access to early support.”\n <\/p>\n
\n Cllr Williamson is also the council’s non-statutory deputy leader.\n <\/p>\n
\n The council has launched seven “transformational”\u00a0Family Hubs – a\u00a0“one-stop shop”\u00a0providing direct\u00a0support to children, young people and families as well as\u00a0Hub2U which brings\u00a0services directly into community spaces.\n <\/p>\n
\n Thousands of children and\u00a0young people have been supported already with a future focus on\u00a0ensuring\u00a0bespoke\u00a0mental health support is provided\u00a0in a timely manner\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Child mental health figures in-focus A Freedom of Information Request by The\u00a0News & Star has revealed that\u00a020,126 referrals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-141739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}