Paediatric mental health is an area with growing concern. As a service at East Surrey Hospital the numbers of young people presenting with overdoses, suicidal thoughts and self-harm has tripled over the years with COVID and lockdown being a main factor. The Government’s response to the Health and Social Care Committee report: children and young people’s mental health (March 2022) states that in addition to the commitments being delivered under the NHS Long Term Plan to improve support for children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis there is a focus on improving the quality of care for people who self-harm and attend A&E. This is expected to require psychiatric liaison teams to ensure that 80% of self-harm referrals receive a biopsychosocial assessment in line with NICE guidelines. Assessing and engaging young people, especially those with poor mental health can be daunting and sometimes scary for professionals who have little experience in this area who are often asked to review if psychiatric liaison teams are not available to assess. This workshop will demystify how to engage young people, to build a therapeutic relationship and rapport quickly, and to help the young people feel listened to and validated. It will explore ways to ask difficult questions around self-harm and suicidal thoughts for those professional that often wonder “will I make it worse?”. This workshop will explore some of the themes that are discussed in biopsychosocial assessments and which information is important to capture to aid the most appropriate onward support and help the prevention of suicide and self-harm.