Hampshire Youth Access (HYA) is a partnership delivering counselling, advice and support to children and young people aged 5 – 17 (or 24 for care leavers and SEND) across Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton.

It does this by offering one-to-one and group support to children and young people, and advice and information to anyone concerned about a child or young person’s emotional wellbeing.

There are five broad strands to our work

Short term support from qualified youth wellbeing practitioners with mental health training for children and young people aged 5 – 17 years (or 24 years for care leavers or SEND).

Groupwork supporting young people with emotional wellbeing issues. This includes short term, ongoing, and peer support groups on issues such as anxiety, anger/mood management and managing stress. Groups will meet at regular times in safe, confidential locations; this includes community spaces and schools. For children and young people aged 11 – 17 years (or 24 years for care leavers or SEND).

Information and advice for children, young people, parents, professionals and other adults concerned about a young person’s wellbeing.

Counselling and therapeutic support for 5 -10 year-olds. Play-based counselling delivered across Hampshire by individual counsellors at safe, confidential locations. Including support for parents.

Counselling and therapeutic support for 11 – 17 years (or 24 years for care leavers or SEND) . This involves face to face counselling sessions, delivered by our partner agencies at their locations across Hampshire, or online. Please note, in the North East Hampshire & Farnham area, HYA only offers counselling for ages 11-17, not including up to 24 for care leavers or SEND.

HYA can work with young people aged 5 – 17 (or 24 for care leavers or SEND) who have or are at high risk of developing emotional wellbeing and/or mental health difficulties, and adults around those children – parents, carers, professionals. There are a variety of difficulties for which children may require support. These difficulties include (but not exclusively):

• Family and relationship issues
• Low mood
• Anxiety
• Low self-esteem
• Anger and challenging behaviours
• Self-harm
• Abuse and neglect
• Bullying
• Bereavement
• Suicidal thoughts

The HYA service is confidential. This means that everything children and young people tell us can remain confidential, unless there is a serious risk of harm to them, or another person.

We will work with young people, families and professionals to ensure everyone understands this.

We will also explain when and how information may have to be shared.

We will ensure consent in sought for children and young people to access the service if necessary.

Feedback

We ask for feedback from both children and young people, and from professionals.

We review all the feedback we receive so that we can ensure that our service is continually improving, relevant and giving you what you need.