This section is designed to provide information for professionals about our CAMHS service. If there are other questions you would like answered in this section please let us know here.
What Is CAMHS?
Lichfield Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are a specialist multi-disciplinary team of professionals trained to support children experiencing significant, persistent and/or complex emotional and mental health difficulties. We provide a range of therapeutic support, and work together as a team to understand and support the needs of individual children and families that are referred to us.
The CAMHS Remit
It is difficult to clearly define criteria for Specialist CAMHS as all young people are different and can vary in how they present. CAMHS is commissioned to provide for the more severe/complex end of the range of mental health problems and we do have a specialist remit working with young people presenting with problems that are causing significant impairment to their daily lives and who's needs are not being met by universal services, such as those in the community and primary care. We have provided a guide of what we do and don't work with below but would advise that you phone to discuss young people you are concerned about on our duty line as detailed here or bring cases to discuss with us at our Single Point of Access meetings twice a month. We do not work with functional behavioural problems that are not associated with a mental health problem as per the inclusion criteria below.
Inclusion Criteria;
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Anxiety Disorders (moderate to severe)
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
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Attachment Disorders
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Trauma
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Autism Spectrum Disorders with co-morbid mental health difficulties
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Psychosomatic disorders
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ADHD with co-morbid mental health difficulties
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Mood Disorders (moderate to severe)
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Deliberate Self-Harm (moderate to severe)
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Gender Identity Disorders (with associated mental health co-morbidity)
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Psychosis
Exclusion Criteria
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Requests for assessment/investigation of serious child care or child protection concerns (First Response)
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Request for Legal Report
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Behaviour problems in the absence of mental health difficulties
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Substance misuse in the absence of mental health difficulties
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Requests for ASC assessment or intervention for ASC in the absence of co-morbid moderate-severe mental health difficulties
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Moderate to severe Learning Disabilities (refer to CAMHS Learning Disabilities Team)
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Encopresis/Enuresis
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Mediation/ Access disputes
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School attendance difficulties in the absence of other emotional problems
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Sleep difficulties in the absence of co-morbid mental health problems
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Eating Disorders (Refer to Specialist Eating Disorder Service)
Local Pathways
CAMHS are one of a number of services locally available to young people and families to support emotional, behavioural or social problems. Below is a rough emotional well-being pathway for the locality with links to other services that will better explain their remit and how to access their help. This is subject to change;
Presenting Problem Available Services
Emotional/Mental Health Tier 1 – Online Support, 0-19 Service, Chat Health
Tier 2 – Action for Children, WBM (16+), Cerebral
Tier 3 – CAMHS
Behaviour/Family Difficulties Level 1 – Universal Services, Schools
Level 2 – Malachi
Level 3 – LST
Level 4 – Safeguarding, FIP
Sleep Tier 1 – Online Advice, 0-19 Service
Tier 2 – Family Support
Eating Concerns Tier 1 – 0-19 Service
Tier 2 – Malachi, Community Dietician
Tier 3 – Specialist Eating Disorder Service
Educational Needs Tier 1 – School, SENCO, 0-19 Service
Tier 2 – Educational Psychologist, SEND (Local Offer)
Tier 3 – Children’s Learning Disability Service
Autistic Spectrum Condition Children's and Young People's Autism Service
CAMHS (co-morbid mental health problems)
ADHD Community Paediatric team (especially if there are also developmental concerns)
CAMHS (especially if comorbid mental health concerns.)
Adopted Children Adoption Support
Drug & Alcohol T3
Domestic Violence New Era
Sexual Abuse SARAC
Bereavement St Giles (Phoenix)
Gender Identity Disorder Tavistock Clinic
Offending Behaviour Youth Offending Team
Making a Referral
If the referral is urgent it should be initiated by phone so that CAMHS can advise of best next steps. Our CAMHS service have a clinician to discuss urgent referrals or give advice during working hours which is 9am-5pm, Mondays to Fridays on 01543 442012.
Referrals should be made using our referral form
General considerations
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Have you met with the parent(s) or carer(s) and the referred child or children?
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Has the referral to CAMHS been discussed with a parent or carer and the referred pupil?
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Has the pupil given consent for the referral?
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Has a parent or carer given consent for the referral?
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What are the parent, carer or young person’s attitudes to the referral?
Basic information
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Is there a child protection plan in place?
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Is the child looked after?
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Name and date of birth of referred child/children
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Address and telephone number
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Who has parental responsibility?
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GP details
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What is the ethnicity of the pupil / family?
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Will an interpreter be needed?
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Are there other agencies involved?
Reason for referral
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The more detail provided in the referral the easier it is for CAMHS to process and put appropriate and timely support in place
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What are the specific difficulties that you want CAMHS to address?
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How long has this been a problem and why is the family seeking help now?
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Is the problem situation-specific or more generalised?
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Your understanding of the problem or issues involved.
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Who else is living at home and details of separated parents if appropriate
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Who else has been or is professionally involved and in what capacity?
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Has there been any previous contact with specialist CAMHS?
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Has there been any previous contact with social services?
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Details of any known protective factors
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Any relevant history i.e. family, life events and/or developmental factors
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Are there any recent changes in the pupil’s or family’s life?
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Are there any known risks, to self, to others or to professionals?
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Is there a history of developmental delay
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Are there any symptoms of ADHD/ASD
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Has there been an education psychology assessment
What Happens Next
This is a guide to the referral pathway within our CAMHS team;
Referral received by CAMHS & screened by the team
Accepted
Not Accepted
Emergency
For young people presenting on the paediatric ward with significant harm to self we will assess within 24 hours
Urgent
For young people who present with significant risk to self or acute psychosis we will see within 7 days
Routine
For those meeting criteria for CAMHS we will assess within 8 weeks
Signposted
If the referral does not meet CAMHS criteria and we feel another service can meet the needs then we will signpost with families consent
Rejected
If the referral does not meet criteria for local services or have sufficient information to process it may be rejected
Working Together
We believe strongly in good inter-agency working. We work directly with children, families and parents, sometimes at our CAMHS base and sometimes in the community (for example, at schools or in the home). We also work indirectly, providing consultation to those involved with supporting children and families, to help understand their emotional and behavioural needs better, and to develop strategies that can be implemented consistently to help them progress. This can be on a case-by-case basis, or as support to an organisation.
We host a Single Point of Access meeting every 2 weeks on a Wednesday afternoon at 2.30 with invites to all professional groups locally working with young people. This gives a chance for good co-ordination of care between agency's to best support young people locally.
What Interventions Do CAMHS Offer
There are several different therapeutic approaches that we use in Lichfield CAMHS to help young people recover from mental health problems. Here are a few of them;
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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
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Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
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Family Therapy
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Art Therapy
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EMDR
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Occupational Therapy
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Medication
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Inter-Personal Therapy
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Emotion Coaching for Parents
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Music Therapy Group
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Incredible Years Programme (3-8)
We have dedicated teams also such as the Early Years Service (0-5), the Outreach Team and the Eating Disorder Service.