Camhs Service Update

 CAMHS services across the country can deliver different services dependent on what the local ICS is commissioning from them, so you may have parents/carers who have lived in other areas and the CAMHS local to them previously may have been different to us.

Core CAMHS

The service delivered by Hereford CAMHS is referred to as a Tier 3 service, and is for children and young people who have persistent and complex mental health problems across various settings in their life.

When triaging referrals we look for information that indicates a significant, persistent issue where other services may have been tried prior to the referral to us, these are referred to as universal services.

However this is not the case when a young person is very obviously mentally unwell.

Within CAMHS Hereford we deliver assessment and therapeutic interventions for those within this criteria.

Tier 2 (not core CAMHS) we have an open pathway with colleagues at CLD Trust (counselling service), so if we receive a referral which we do not think meets our criteria from the information received, we will forward on the CLD Trust and likewise if the referral details indicate an issue where a CBT approach would be appropriate we can now pass our referrals on to WEST Team (Well Being and Emotional Support Team) who are part of CAMHS and based in all Herefordshire High schools and some primary schools.

Both CLD and WEST can also refer back to us following any interventions they have delivered.

Within our therapeutic models at CAMHS we deliver a range of interventions, 1:1 work with the young person, specialist 1:1 work, NVR approaches for parents and Psychological family interventions.

When considering if psychiatry intervention for medication is appropriate for a young person we would follow NICE guidelines and want to see that the young person has accessed therapeutic interventions in the first instance, unless the mental illness indicates otherwise.

We have links to the Early Intervention (EI) team and jointly assess any young people who may be experiencing first episode psychosis or perceived first episode psychosis.

We also have a diagnostic pathway for Autism, unfortunately we do not offer a post diagnostic support service, unless there is a clear mental health element involved. At this point we signpost parents and young people to The National Autistic Society and Autism West Midlands.

Under 10’s sits with Child Development Centre, Paediatrics.

ADHD diagnostic pathway is also delivered by us from age 7 up (there is no pathway for under 7’s in the county currently). There may be ongoing work following diagnosis in the form of therapeutic interventions/parenting strategies/medication.

Both ASC & ADHD need clear evidence across two settings for us to accept referrals, i.e. Home and school setting which indicate either ASC or ADHD. There may also be alternative rationale for the behaviours being displayed and we also look at any educational psychologists reports (where available) to understand the young person’s processing and functioning.

We have a specific pathway for children and young people who are in care, in the first instance the clinicians generally concentrate on looking at the network around the young person and checking out the stability of that network and looking at the trauma responses of the young person. The local authority has also recently commissioned a new service for looked after young people. (Safe Connections)

We have a CAMHS staff member who also liaises and works with the youth justice team locally.

I have put the needs triangle below for reference and also some links to services we signpost to.

About domestic abuse – Women’s Aid (womensaid.org.uk)

Home – WMRSASC

Purple Leaf | Working to Eradicate Sexual Violence

Home | Phoenix Bereavement Support

Child to parent abuse | Parental Education Growth Support (PEGS) (pegsupport.co.uk)

Being a parent – Herefordshire Council

WELCOME | The CLD Trust