Self-Help for managing self-harm and suicidal thoughts

Need to talk to someone?

If you are a child or young person and need some mental health support please talk to someone about how you are feeling. If you don’t feel you can talk to a family member or someone at school, consider some of the helplines or text support below. You are not alone. 

Support from the NHS

The wellbeing and emotional support teams in schools service is designed to help children and young people ages 5-18 years access mental health and wellbeing support early on in educational settings. It's all about ensuring children and young people can get access to the right help as early as possible.

The Reach4Wellbeing team supports and promotes the emotional wellbeing of young people and parents of primary school age children through interactive online group programmes, using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles.

NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Talking Therapies is open to young people aged 16 and over. They provide a range of support, including online therapy, groups and courses and 1:1 support. The team can also help you find and access a variety of groups, courses and activities delivered by voluntary, charity and social enterprise providers that can support your physical and mental wellbeing. You can self-refer online in your own time and you don't need to go to your doctor/GP first.

Other helpful links

Kooth is a helpful website offering online counselling and support through text, e-mail or chatting on the forum. Kooth is suitable for ages 10-18 years.

Lumi Nova is a personalised digital therapeutic game for childhood anxiety, co-designed with children, parents, NHS clinicians and experts in mental health, human-centred design and ethical gaming technology. It empowers young people aged 7 to 12 years to overcome mental health challenges and create life-long skills using immersive experiences that are self-guided, interactive and fun. Sign up for free here.

The Blues Programme  is an internationally acclaimed wellbeing programme for young people aged 13-19. Over six weeks, it teaches emotional resilience, and reduces low mood and anxious thoughts. Crucially, it gets teenagers talking.

Worcestershire ChatHealth is a service where 11-19 years olds can text 07507331750 to speak to their School Health Nurse for confidential advice and support around a variety of issues, including bullying, emotional health, relationship problems, alcohol and drugs.

YoungMinds Textline offers you free, 24/7 text messaging support wherever you are in the UK. If you need someone to talk to about how you’re feeling, text YM to 85258.

Worrying thoughts

Other worrying symptoms might include hearing voices, feelings of unreality, becoming very angry or violent, showing signs of an eating disorder or becoming very withdrawn. If you are a young person experiencing such thoughts, please talk to someone about how you are feeling and if you don’t feel you can talk to a family member, consider some of the helplines or text support. You are not alone. 

Suicidal thoughts

If you are expressing suicidal thoughts or feeling like you wish to harm yourself or someone else, you should speak to a medical professional as soon as possible. Many people express suicidal thoughts because they are feeling overwhelmed and may not really want to act on them, but it is still very frightening. If you need help in an emergency phone 999.

Support in a mental health crisis

If you are experiencing something that makes you feel unsafe, distressed, or worried about your mental health, you can now contact the Herefordshire and Worcestershire 24 hour urgent mental health helpline by calling NHS 111 and selecting the mental health option.

What happens when I call?

The phone will be answered by a trained mental health professional who will be able to listen to your concerns and help you get the support you need. With your permission, they can also access your electronic patient records to better meet your needs and to avoid you repeatedly having to tell us your situation. They can offer advice over the phone, put you in contact with crisis services or refer you to other, appropriate support

Who can call?

You can call for yourself, or someone else. NHS 111 is for all ages, including children and young people and those with neurodevelopmental needs. If you’re deaf or have hearing loss, please use the following link to be connected to local crisis service – NHS 111 – SignVideo.

If you aren't able to make the call yourself, then anyone can call on your behalf — for example a friend, carer, loved one or even your GP. You can also access NHS 111 online via 111.nhs.uk.

The service is available to anyone facing a mental health crisis, which could include:
  • Changes to your mood
  • Withdrawing from people (close family, friends, or work colleagues)
  • Having increased thoughts about your life not being worth living
  • Excessive worry
  • Feeling out of control or unable to cope
  • Feeling anxious about leaving the house
  • Hearing voices or seeing things that others can’t
  • Thinking about harming yourself.
By calling NHS 111, and selecting the mental health option, we can help to get you the urgent support you need for your mental health. If you are unsure what to do, staff on this number will be able to guide you to the appropriate choice.

Call 999 or go to A&E now if:

  • Yours or someone’s life is at risk – for example, they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose
  • You do not feel you can keep yourself or someone else safe

If you just need to talk, any time of day or night

These services offer confidential advice from trained volunteers. You can talk about anything that's troubling you, no matter how difficult:

Alternative local support

  • Worcestershire Safe Haven provides telephone support and face-to-face appointments to Worcestershire residents who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Call 01905 600400 any day of the week between 6pm and midnight for support and signposting.
  • Herefordshire Mind Safe Haven is open to anyone over the age of 18, living in Herefordshire and struggling with mental distress. We provide an active listening service and signposting to help support those in need. We're open 356 days a year, 5pm-10pm on 01432 372 407 and safehaven@herefordshire-mind.org.uk. You do not need an appointment to talk to a member of staff over the phone but face to face support is by appointment only. 

National support

  • National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK offers a supportive listening service to anyone with thoughts of suicide. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK on 0800 689 5652 (open 24/7).
  • Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). You can call the CALM on 0800 58 58 58 (5pm–midnight every day) if you are struggling and need to talk. Or if you prefer not to speak on the phone, you could try the CALM webchat service.
  • Papyrus HOPELINEUK247 is a suicide prevention helpline for anyone aged 35, or if you have concerns about a young person who might be struggling. Call Papyrus HOPELINEUK on 0800 068 4141 or text 88247.
  • If you are deaf or hard of hearing and experiencing a mental health crisis contact the SignHealth Text Crisis service, by texting DEAF to 85258 for free and immediate support. If yours, or someone else’s life is in immediate danger for example, they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose, or you do not feel you can keep yourself or someone else safe you can contact 999 by using the Relay UK service . The service is provided for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired as an alternative option for contacting an emergency service.

Use the  NHS111 online help service or phone NHS 111 if you need urgent help for your mental health, but it’s not an emergency - for example, if you need medication or a prescription and you're unable to contact your GP.

Self harm

Self-harm is when someone hurts themselves on purpose to relieve feelings of distress. People sometimes self-harm when life feels hard to cope with. (Young Mind). Self-harm is often a symptom of another underlying emotional difficulties. Visit your GP or speak your school if you want to find out what services you can access for further support if you haven’t already.

There are strategies you can use to manage the urge to self-harm. The urge to self-harm is like a wave. It often increases before it decreases and then disappears. To ride the wave, it is helpful to identify coping strategies to replace the self-harming behaviours. Look through the resources below for ideas of how you can manage these urges until it passes. Everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for everyone!

If you’re worried about a friend who is self-harming, always tell a trusted adult. They can help your friend get the support they need.

Apps

Calm Harm

Calm Harm aims to help young people manage the urge to self-harm. It follows a treatment called Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) which encourages people who self-harm to learn to be mindful of their emotions, to learn ways to recognise them and manage them differently.

Bestie

An award winning app in Herefordshire and Worcestershire for young people's wellbeing.

Finch

Finch is a self care pet app that helps you feel prepared and positive, one day at a time. Take care of your pet by taking care of yourself! Choose from a wide variety of self care exercises personalized for you. Struggling with stress, mental health, or need motivation?

Mindshift

MindShift app is based on to help young adults cope with anxiety, by acting as a portable coach that guides users through challenging situations. Designed in collaboration with Anxiety Canada, this app teaches users how to relax and helps them identify active steps to directly face and take charge of their anxiety.

The app provides a variety of methods for young people to respond to anxiety including; developing their knowledge of anxiety and symptoms, engaging in relaxation tasks, evaluating their level of anxiety in particular situations, developing realistic thinking patterns and changing behaviour. 

Specific tools help users tackle issues such as improving their sleep quality, dealing with perfectionism, and handling conflict. These tools address everyday situations that contribute to increased levels of anxiety, in order to help users change their overall relationship with anxiety. The goal is to help young people learn and practice anxiety coping skills.

Smiling mind

Smiling Mind is designed to help people pressure, stress, and challenges of daily life. This app has a fantastic section on Mindfulness in the Classroom. An especially good choice for the younger users out there, as it was created specifically with students in mind. Smiling Mind offers programs for a variety of age groups, including 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18 and adults. The app has an easy-to-use interface for keeping track of your progress over time, both in terms of how many sessions you complete and how your emotions change.

Calm

Calm is the perfect meditation app for beginners, but also includes hundreds of programs for intermediate and advanced users. Guided meditation sessions are available in lengths of 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 minutes so you can choose the perfect length to fit with your schedule.

Enjoy 100+ guided meditations to help you manage anxiety, lower stress and sleep better. Sleep Stories are soothing tales read by well-known voices to help people unwind and fall into a deep sleep each evening. Also enjoy 10 minute guided video lessons on mindful movement and gentle stretching.

SAM

SAM is an app to help you understand and manage anxiety.

Think Ninja

This app from Healios, helps young people aged 11 to 17 years old with their mental health, emotional well-being and resilience.

Worry Tree

The WorryTree app aims to help you take control of worry wherever you are.  WorryTree helps you record, manage and problem solve your worries and anxiety based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques. 

Useful information

Helplines:

  • Shout – Text the word SHOUT to 85258 and someone will text you back to talk about how you are feeling
  • Kooth 
  • Samaritans: 116 123
  • Childline: 0800 1111
  • The Mix: support and advice for under 25s, including a helpline, crisis messenger service and webchat. Call 0808 808 4994 or for the crisis messenger service, text THEMIX to 85258 

Find out more:

I’m a Parent

I’m a Teacher

Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings:

Suicidal feelings can be either having thoughts about ending your life or people being better off without you. It can also mean thinking about methods of suicide or making clear plans (Mind).

If you haven’t already, look at the resources above. You may also find it helpful to look through the following:

Helplines:

If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned for a young person who might be you can contact HOPELINEUK for confidential support and practical advice.

Opening hours: 9am – midnight every day of the year (Weekends and Bank Holidays included)