Our parent/carer peer support group is a space where parents and carers come together and use their own experiences of caring for a child or young person with mental health challenges to help each other. It is a place where you can feel accepted, understood and supported by others who share similar challenges.

Our group is for any parent or carer who has or looks after a child or young person with a mental health challenge. Your child might be experiencing anxiety, low mood, depression, low self-esteem, self-harm or an eating disorder, or may be struggling to attend school because of their mental health.

If you are finding it difficult to cope with the impact of whatever mental health issues your child has, please come along and we’ll do our very best to support you.

Yes! Before your first session, just let us know in an email that you’re feeling nervous. Then Karen, our Parent Facilitator, will meet you when you arrive so you don’t have to walk into the group on your own. She’ll introduce you to a few other parents/carers and make sure you feel comfortable.

There’s no set agenda for the group. The purpose of us coming together is to talk about the difficulties we’re facing, maybe offload our own emotions, express frustration if we need to, and share our experiences. By doing this we learn from and support each other and discover some new ways to navigate some of the challenges.

No. Respect and trust are important in all our sessions – what is said in the room stays in the room! Confidentiality is key when talking about our personal experiences. We encourage all parents and carers to only share their own first name when talking and never to use their young person’s name. This way we can be sure that there will be no breach of shared information outside of the sessions.