HSE CAMHS Hubs have commenced implementation - on a pilot basis - within selected HSE Community Mental Health Services across the country. These services will become an integral part of each community Mental Health Service in the future. This is an important step in the journey to provide modern, responsive and fit-for-purpose Mental Health Services.
About CAMHS Hubs
The vision for CAMHS Hubs is “To provide intensive brief mental health interventions to support CAMHS Teams in delivering enhanced responses to children, young people and their families or carers, in times of acute mental health crisis”.
CAMHS Hub will support Community CAMHS Teams by providing an enhanced level of brief intervention mental health support for children and young people aged up to 18 years, experiencing an acute mental health crisis, where it is determined the needs of the child or young person require a rapid response, time-bound intensive brief intervention.
Components of CAMHS Hubs Services
- A CAMHS Hub provides enhanced intensive brief mental health interventions to support Community CAMHS Teams in delivering enhanced responses to children, young people and their families or carers, in times of acute mental health crisis, in the young person’s own environment or community facility and with the active involvement of the young person and their family, carers or supporters and interagency liaison with local partners.
- Support from these Hubs is time-limited, providing intensive intervention and support with sufficient flexibility to respond to different young people’s or parent or carer needs.
- The service will be child and young person centred, recovery focused and trauma informed.
Current status of CAMHS Hubs
The Model of Care for CAMHS Hubs was published and formally launched by Minister Mary Butler TD in September 2023. This Model of Care details how CAMHS Hubs in Ireland should be organised and integrated across health and community services.
The Model of Care will be tested and piloted across five pilot learning sites in CHO 2, CHO 3, CHO 4, CHO 6 and CHO 8. There will be an independent evaluation of the pilot implementation of these services over the testing phase (18 to 24 months) in line with the Standard Operating Procedures and the Model of Care. This evaluation will inform plans to develop CAMHS Hubs in the future.
Background
The Model of Care for CAMHS Hubs was developed in alignment with recommendations in Sharing the Vision - A Mental Health Policy for Everyone. It arose from the recognition that those experiencing mental health crisis need specialist services to provide brief intensive supports in a timely way to assist the individual service user in their recovery journey.
The development of CAMHS Hubs is also prioritised:
The Model of Care for CAMHS Hubs was developed by a National Steering Group comprising members from across Mental Health Services.
