• Menu
  • Skip to left header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Before Header

  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

Clinicians commissioning healthcare for the people of Northumberland

  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
  • Home
  • About us
    • Our Governing Body
    • Governing Body members
    • Vision and values
    • Prescribing
    • Primary Care Commissioning Committee (PCCC)
    • How we work
    • Northern CCG joint committee meetings
    • Counter fraud
    • Safeguarding
    • Who we work with
    • Procurement
    • Our Integrated Care System and Partnerships
    • Primary Care Networks (PCN)
  • Get involved
    • Patient participation groups
    • Your NHS Online Community
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • You said, we did
    • How to get involved
    • Accessible communications
    • A new hospital for Berwick
    • Rothbury Community Hospital
    • Past engagement
    • Meet our engagement and communications team
  • Your health
    • COVID-19 Vaccine Information
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Why is your GP practice working differently?
    • Need urgent care?
    • Find a service
    • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
    • Children’s mental health support
    • Personal health budgets
    • Health advice
    • What is social prescribing?
    • Stay well this winter
    • NHS 111
    • Patient choice
  • News
  • Events
    • Consultation and engagement events
    • Governing Body Meetings
    • Northern CCG joint committee meetings
    • Primary care commissioning committee meetings
  • Documents
    • Accessible information standard
    • Annual reports
    • Constitution and operational plans
    • Freedom of information disclosure log
    • Governing Body meeting papers
    • Plans and policies
    • Primary Care Commissioning Committee papers
    • Register of interests
    • Transparency reports
  • Opportunities
    • Vacancies
    • Training
  • Contact us
    • Compliments and complaints
    • Media enquiries
    • Freedom of information requests
    • Subject access requests

Mobile Menu

  • Accessibility information
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
  • Home
  • About us
  • Get involved
  • Your health
  • News
  • Events
  • Documents
  • Contact us
You are here: Home / News / Free online mental health support for young people

Free online mental health support for young people

Monday 22 June 2020

Children and young people aged between 11-25 years in Northumberland can now access free, anonymous and safe support from Kooth for their mental health and wellbeing whenever they need to. Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has commissioned the service, which is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and requires no waiting lists, referrals or thresholds.

Kooth allows young people across the area to access a range of tools, resources and activities that offer support to those struggling with mental health. These include online discussion boards, reading and contributing to self-help articles, daily goal trackers and an online journal. The service has recently launched an online activity hub which provides activities that young people can do at home to help them manage mental health or wellbeing challenges. Online counselling is also available on Kooth, with qualified counsellors available through an online chat service. Sessions with counsellors can be booked in advance or accessed sooner through a drop in service between 12pm to 10pm on weekdays and 6pm to 10pm on weekends.

NHS Northumberland CCG has commissioned Kooth as part of its ongoing strategy to support young people with their mental health in the area. The commissioning group will be working with local communities to raise awareness of the new service.

Kate O’brien, senior head of commissioning for child health, learning disabilities and mental health at the CCG said: “We’re so excited to be commissioning Kooth as part of our services in Northumberland. We know how important it is to have mental health support in place for young people to help them at an early stage before problems escalate.

“The recent pandemic has further accelerated the need for more services and given the rural landscape of Northumberland, Kooth really fits in with the needs of our young people – especially those who are shielding who may be feeling isolated at home. It really gives them an outlet to share their thoughts and experiences with those in similar situations.”

Dr Lynne Green, XenZone’s chief clinical officer, added, “We’re thrilled to see that Northumberland CCG has commissioned the service at a time when young people in rural parts of the country may be feeling especially vulnerable when it comes to their mental health. We hope they access the peer to peer support opportunities available within Kooth to share their experiences with others if they need to. Our friendly counsellors will be available for an online chat or to message at any time if a young person needs to talk.

Our recent data has shown young people in the North East are especially struggling with sleep, sadness and loneliness during the pandemic. Our clinical content team are working hard to ensure there are plenty of articles and discussions within the service that can support young people in managing these issues.”

© 2023 - NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}