Healthy Young Minds: New name in mental health support

A mental health service for young people has been renamed to help improve access and better represent all organisations working to support mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people.

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), run by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, will now be called Healthy Young Minds. To support a local focus, this will be known as Healthy Young Minds Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale (HMR).

Recent feedback has highlighted that the name CAMHS has little meaning and could be stigmatising, which could prevent those in need from accessing the service.

In a bid to address this issue, the Pennine Care CAMHS teams decided to put the name change to a public vote.

A total of 449 respondents had their say, including service users, parents, CAMHS staff, charity workers, Trust members and other healthcare professionals.

Healthy Young Minds emerged as the most popular name out of five options, including the original CAMHS, with 32 per cent of votes as a first choice and 27 per cent of votes as a second choice.

The name change is in line with several other CAMHS across the country, including Camden Council and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, which has been supported by Ofsted for helping to ‘de-medicalise’ children’s mental health care.

Sara Barnes, CAMHS directorate manager, said: “It was important to get everyone involved with the name change and we hope this will help to meet our vision around improving access and early help.

“The network of support for young people and their families is much wider than just the support we offer, and the new name reflects this.”

The service is also developing a new website which will contain a range advice, support and self-help resources; look out for more information.

Pennine Care provides community-based mental health and emotional wellbeing services across Bury; Oldham; Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale; Stockport; Tameside and Glossop; and Trafford.

The Trust also provides two inpatient units, Hope and Horizon, based in Bury. These help young people who need a period of more intensive support and are unaffected by the name change.