About CAMHS

CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We have teams in Dorset called community teams (also known as Core-CAMHS), an assessment and brief intervention team (known as CAMHS Gateway) and an inpatient team at Pebble Lodge in Bournemouth.

We assess and treat children and young people up the age of 18 who are suffering significant mental difficulties. CAMHS also support families and carers who need advice or help. We provide these services across Dorset (including Bournemouth and Poole), employing an experienced team of doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers. Our guide to who works in CAMHS will tell you more about the people you might meet when you come to see us.

We can help with a range of serious mental health problems, including:

  • significant self harm and risk-taking behaviours
  • depression and severe anxiety disorders
  • obsessive-compulsive disorders
  • complex and/or significant post-traumatic disorders
  • severe behavioural difficulties
  • mental health or severe emotional difficulties in children with a diagnosis of Autism or Asperger's Syndrome
  • psychosis

Find out more about what we can help with here.

You can refer yourself using the CAMHS gateway

If you're coming to CAMHS for the first time, find out more about your CAMHS appointment here. If you would like to talk to CAMHS but don't have a referral, talk to your parents or carers, or another adult you trust – you'll find advice about this in our section on getting the support you need.

You can take a mini-tour of the Poole CAMHS below: