A CLINIC set up for people experiencing strange voices in their head is extending its support to children and young people.

Voices Clinic aims to help a wider range of people.

It will be trialling its support with child and adolescent mental health support services (CAMHS) at a clinic in Hailsham.

Practitioners in the team will be trained and supervised to deliver a brief intervention to young clients who hear distressing voices, assisting the young people to develop and use strategies for coping with these experiences.

This initiative will extend the learning that is currently being generated by a programme of clinical research exploring the ways that young people and mental health practitioners talk about “voice hearing experiences”.

Distressing voices are experienced by approximately 70 per cent of adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The experience of hearing voices is twice as common in young people.

In both cases they can lead to suicide.

Voices Clinic is a collaboration between clinical services and the Research and Development Department within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

It is designed to improve access to cognitive

behavioural therapy for distressing voices.