Emotional support
What is ‘Thinking Allowed”?
A team of people who have lots of experience working with young people who have experienced things and are going through tough times. We know that young people often don’t want to talk to yet another person about their personal stuff so we often see Social Workers and Carers and help them understand what young people are going through. If it is appropriate we will see young people but we don't have to.
We are a branch of CAMHS (Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service) that specialises in providing children in care with support. The service is run by the National Health Service (NHS) and works very closely with social workers and social work managers to help young people who are in care that are struggling.
Why are children and young people referred to Thinking Allowed?
Because someone is concerned that a young person is really not very happy at all. This may show in their behaviour, like being withdrawn and not talking or sometimes more scary or dangerous stuff. It may be that they are very angry and getting into lots of difficulties with the people around them.
For young people who have been in care for some time, if there are worries that they are under stress, or that the person caring for them is finding this hard, 'Thinking Allowed' may be asked to see the young person or their carers to try and talk through some of the issues that have come up.
Thinking Allowed work with young people aged 0-18 years looked after by Bristol Social Care. We mainly work with children who are living in Bristol.
How are children and young people referred to Thinking Allowed?
Social workers are usually the ones who ask us to see a young person. Sometimes, GPs, carers or young people contact us directly and as long as the young person’s Social Worker agrees, that is OK too. If you think you would like to talk to us, then tell an adult that you know and trust and they will help you make a referral. It is always better to speak up when you are struggling and not just bottle things up to yourself.
What services do Thinking Allowed offer?
Once we have been asked to see a young person, there are three things that can happen:
Consultation: This means we would talk to the Social Worker, carers and other people working with the young person about how to make things better for the young person.
Assessment: Young people and their carers would be asked to meet with us and this gives everyone a chance to talk about how things are for them. The assessment is done so that we can see how we can help the young person. Sometimes we would need to meet more than once with young people, carers to do the assessment. The assessments normally happen in Bristol, but we can see people in their homes if that is necessary. After the assessment we write a report suggesting what needs to happen to make things better for the young person. This might include things like where the best place is for the young person to live and also if they might find therapy (counselling) helpful. We always share this with the young person and their Social Worker.
Therapeutic support: Most therapy is done by the CAMHS team that covers the area where the young person is living. For this to happen 'Thinking Allowed' will contact CAMHS after an initial meeting with the carers, Social Worker and others.
If that is not for the best then 'Thinking Allowed' staff may work with a young person directly. If we do this we will set up a number of meetings over a period of time so that we can work on certain things with the young person. These meetings could be with the young person on their own or with parents or carers depending on what the therapy sessions were about.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that really matter.
- Martin Luther King
