Children’s Mental Health Week: Helping Young People to ‘belong’

Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 is focussing on a sense of belonging with the theme of ‘This is My Place’. Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust provide a broad range of mental health services for children and young people to support healthy futures and brighter lives.

The Trust’s Core CAMHS (Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service) provides a specialist assessment and treatment service to children and young people up to 18 years of age who are experiencing significant emotional or mental health difficulties. The service is delivered locally in both Westend in Hessle and Rivendell House in Driffield.

These services are home to a community team of doctors, nurses, psychologists and therapists who support children and young people with a wide range of mental health difficulties. They deliver clinical care pathways to help with problems including depression and mood, eating difficulties, self-harming, severe behaviour problems and sometimes psychosis.

This vital service is a crucial step for children and young people, but also their families and wider network, to get the help they need with their mental health.

The service is currently implementing a shift in the delivery of therapy for children and young people, taking a broader look at how the family unit and wider influences can impact a child’s mental health and their outcomes. The approach is moving towards a ‘systemic model’ which focusses on relationships and patterns within a group, such as a family, rather than solely on an individual's internal psychology.

Therapy for a child often moves to family therapy because a child's struggles (like anxiety, behaviour issues or trauma) rarely exist in a vacuum; they're deeply tied to family dynamics, communication patterns and unresolved issues. Involving the whole system creates lasting change and a better environment for recovery or management.

Most children and young people live in families, acknowledging that ‘family’ takes many forms. When difficulties arise, everyone in the family can be affected in different ways and families can be left feeling confused and overwhelmed. By incorporating the whole family in the conversation, you can support the child and their environment to learn together and manage issues as a unit.

At Rivendell House, a new initiative is looking to breathe new life into the building and improve the environment for young people who visit the site. Right now, young people are collaborating with the service to design a refresh of the interior and exterior, once again linking to the theme of ‘This is my place’. The Trust is keen to use co-production with service users for changes to services, allowing those collaborating to discuss and explore options that make a real and tangible difference to the experience of patients, and their carers. Once these plans have been finalised, the Trust Charity Health Stars will be working to put those plans into action with the help of the local community. Watch this space for ways to support young people to improve the place they visit to support their mental health.