What is Community CAMHS?
Community CAMHS are services that are located in local communities which offer specialised assessment and treatment for a range of young people and their families with mental health difficulties. They are made up of teams of professionals who are trained in the area of mental health like, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and speech & language therapists.
To access a CAMHS service you need to be referred by your GP.
Our aim
The aim of CAMHS is to provide timely high quality assessment and treatment of mental health difficulties for young people and their families.
Who attends?
Community CAMHS will offer assessment to those young people and their families who have been identified by their GP or another senior clinician to be experiencing mental health difficulties that are having a moderate to severe impact on their quality of life.
What does Community CAMHS do?
Many people experience distress in their lives and the source of this stress can be school, family life or peers. Sometimes mental health difficulties arise without any noticeable triggers at all. There are many services that are available to help in all of these areas like education services, social services and health services. CAMHS is part of the health service and therefore is the appropriate service for young people who are experiencing distress as a result of mental health difficulties.
What you can expect?
Usually a referral to a community CAMHS team is facilitated by your GP or another identified senior clinician. This referral is processed and if it is suitable for CAMHS you will be given notice to attend for an assessment. This involves a meeting with some members of the CAMHS team, who will take a history of the problem from both the young person and their parents. After this meeting, a decision is made whether further appointments would be helpful. These further appointments can involve one to one sessions with a clinician, group work with other young people with similar difficulties or some meetings with a clinician and your family/ parents.
Who will you meet?
The CAMHS team consists of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and speech & language therapists. All of these people offer different insights into assessing and treating mental health difficulties and will be called upon to assist in helping many families with various challenges.
