Trauma

Where to start

For almost everything, the NHS is the right first move, and it costs nothing.

• Your GP. The gateway to everything the NHS offers a child: paediatric assessment, a referral to CAMHS, and support for you as the parent. Ask for a double appointment. Describe the pattern over weeks rather than the worst single day, and say plainly what you are worried about. Bring a written list; the ten minutes go quickly. www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-gp
• Your child’s school. The pastoral lead, the head of year, or the form tutor. Free, already knows your child, and often the fastest route to a change that helps. Before or alongside anything else. A school cannot act on what it has not been told, and what you bring is often what it did not have.
• Private therapy, if you can meet the cost. A registered counsellor or psychotherapist, found through the BACP or NCPS directories. Waiting lists are shorter than the NHS and you choose who your child sits with. When waiting is the problem, or when you want a particular kind of help. What to look for, and what to expect, is set out at theparentbook.com/finding-a-therapist theparentbook.com/finding-a-therapist

For trauma

• Anna Freud. A research-led mental health centre. I send parents here when they want to read from a clinically authoritative source. Chapters touching attachment, trauma, neurodevelopment, or any concern where the parent benefits from reading from a centre with research credibility. The right pointer when YoungMinds feels too light. www.annafreud.org/parents-and-carers
• NSPCC. The UK’s leading child-protection charity. The right signpost any time the chapter touches on a child being harmed. Any chapter where safeguarding may be live, where a parent suspects abuse, or where the chapter touches on online safety. The adult helpline is the right line for parents; Childline is the line for children themselves. NSPCC Helpline (for adults) 0808 800 5000 · Mon-Fri 10am-4pm by phone; email 11am-4pm, seven days a week. An email sent when the service is closed is not received. · If the NSPCC service is closed and the concern cannot wait, call the police on 101. You can also contact the child’s local out-of-hours children’s social care, social work or social services team. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. www.nspcc.org.uk
• MindEd for Families. NHS-backed e-learning hub written by specialists and parents together. The right pointer for parents who want to go deeper than a charity explainer. When the chapter calls for a substantial primer rather than a short article. Particularly useful for parents who are research-minded and want structured material they can work through. www.minded.org.uk

If your family is adoptive, fostering or kinship

• PAC-UK. The UK’s leading specialist post-adoption support charity, part of Family Action. The right pointer when adoptive-family work has tipped beyond peer support and into specialist trauma-informed therapy. Adoption tips and chapters where the family needs trauma-informed clinical support, including the teenager searching for birth family. PAC-UK is the provider many UK local authorities commission for adoption-specific therapy through the Adoption Support Fund. PAC-UK Advice Line, part of Family Action 0300 1800 090 · Mon-Wed 10am-4pm; Thu 10am-7pm; Fri 10am-1pm family-action.org.uk/get-support/pac-uk-adoption-and-special-guardianship-support
• Adoption UK. The UK’s leading peer-led charity for adoptive and kinship families. The right pointer for the parent-and-peer-support layer of post-adoption life. Adoption tips and chapters where peer support, school-curriculum sensitivity, and the everyday textures of adoptive family life are the territory. Their resources on school assignments and on adopted teenagers searching for birth family are the cleanest UK parent-facing source we know. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Adoption UK Helpline 0300 666 0006 · Mon-Fri 10am-2.30pm; Northern Ireland Mon-Fri 9am-5pm www.adoptionuk.org
• CoramBAAF. The UK’s leading membership organisation for adoption and fostering professionals. The right pointer for adoptive parents who want to read at the policy and professional-framework layer. Adoption tips and chapters where the parent benefits from understanding the professional and policy framework her family is operating inside. Their resources on adopted adults, kinship care, and the records-access process are the right institutional reading. Written mainly for professionals. For support as a parent, Adoption UK and PAC-UK are the better first call. corambaaf.org.uk
• The Fostering Network. The UK’s leading fostering charity. The right line for foster carers across the placement lifecycle, from the first 72 hours of a placement through the harder conversations and the eventual move on. Quick tips and chapters on the fostering family. The Fostering Network’s parent-facing resources on placement settling, on the careful handling of a fostered child’s history, and on placement endings, are the cleanest UK source we know. Foster carers who are members can also use a 24-hour legal helpline. Fosterline (England) and The Fostering Network advice lines 0800 040 7675 · England Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; Scotland 10am-4pm; Wales 9.30am-12.30pm; Northern Ireland 9.30am-1.30pm www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk
• Kinship. The UK’s leading kinship-care charity, formerly known as Grandparents Plus. The right line for the family that has, often gradually, found itself parenting again because the child’s birth parents cannot. Quick tips and chapters covering the kinship-care territory. Their advice line holds the legal, financial, school and emotional layers of kinship parenting; the Someone Like Me peer-support service connects new kinship carers with experienced ones. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Kinship Advice Line 0300 123 7015 · Mon-Fri 10.30am-1pm, excluding public holidays kinship.org.uk

If your child is self-harming, or has spoken about not wanting to be here

• Papyrus. Specialist suicide prevention for under-35s. HopeLine 24/7 belongs in both the sidebar and the standing crisis block whenever the chapter touches suicidal ideation. Any chapter where suicidal ideation in a young person is live or possible. The 24-hour line is one of the most important numbers in the library. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. HopeLine 24/7 0300 102 2470 · 24/7, every day www.papyrus-uk.org/help-me/hopeline-24-7
• Self-Injury Support. The UK’s leading self-harm and self-injury specialist charity. The right line for the parent who has just found a mark and needs to talk to someone who has heard this conversation before. Quick tips or chapters where self-harm is the disclosure being held, particularly in the first conversation with a child who has begun. Their text support service is specifically calibrated for women and is the right route where a young woman in the household needs an option that is not voice-based. Helpline hours are short. Outside them, the numbers at the top of this sheet are open. Self-Injury Support Helpline 0808 800 8088 · Helpline and text support Mon and Thu 7pm-10pm www.selfinjurysupport.org.uk

If you are considering private therapy

Waiting lists are long. If you can meet the cost, a registered therapist can usually be seen in weeks rather than months. Both registers below are accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, which is the thing to check before anything else.

• BACP Therapist Directory. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s public register. Search by area, by what you are bringing, and by whether the therapist works with children. www.bacp.co.uk/search/Therapists
• NCPS Therapist Directory. The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society’s register. Every therapist listed is qualified, supervised, insured, and accountable to a code of ethics. ncps.com/find-a-counsellor
• Kensington Square Therapy. Our own practice. We work with children, young people and parents, in the room at 23 Kensington Square, online, and inside schools we partner with. www.kst.ltd

What to look for in a therapist, what a first session is like, and the questions worth asking before you commit, are set out at theparentbook.com/finding-a-therapist

Everything else

The full directory, across every subject, is at theparentbook.com/services. If a number here has changed, please tell us at hello@theparentbook.com and we will correct it.