Child and Adolescent Mental Health

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is based at Stirling Community Hospital and The Manor in Falkirk.

It is important to remember that not all CAMHS teams are the same and there are differences in provision across the country. It is also important to say that every professional working with children has a responsibility to consider and respond to the wellbeing of a child or young person. Whilst CAMHS are there to respond when mental wellbeing is of concern, emotional wellbeing should be considered by other services.  For this reason it is normal for CAMHS to expect some form of support to have been attempted prior to referral. (if you are concerned about an emotional wellbeing issue then speak to the Named Person Service ie your health visitor, school head teacher, or Pastoral / Guidance Staff).

We hope this page will give you an increased understanding about what we offer and who we are. However the Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists have produced a helpful brochure on what to expect from CAMHS which can be downloaded on the Royal College of Physicians website.

Hours: 9am-5pm Monday-Friday

If you have concerns about a child or young person being at immediate risk out with these hours, contact either your local GP surgery, NHS 24 (dial 111) or go to your nearest A&E department.

If you are a young person seeking immediate help with mental health problems, use one of the above options, or contact Childline (0800 1111) or at the Samaritans (08457 90 90 90).

What is CAMHS

CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) is provided by NHS Forth Valley. We work with you to understand your/your child’s difficulties and where appropriate offer therapeutic interventions to help you make the changes you want to make. The team is made up of a range of different professionals and we work as a multi disciplinary team.

Our Staff

Our staff team includes clinicians who have trained as Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Nurses, and Social Workers. In addition many people have additional training (please see interventions sections for details). We also have reception, secretarial staff and domestic staff that help run the service.

The strength of multidisciplinary CAMHS team-working is that distinct therapeutic approaches can be offered by utilising the different skills of each profession. It is not unusual for more than one CAMHS team member to be involved.

We often have professionals undertaking clinical training on placement with us who are supervised by a qualified member of the team.

Everyone in our team has experience of working with children and young people who have mental health difficulties and their families.

Our administrative staff  support the Clinicians in all their administrative duties. They are your first point of contact when you telephone in to the Department.  They type correspondence, ensure that appointments are sent out and update our systems. They are not able to provide you with advice and guidance as this is the job of our clinical staff, however if concerned they can take a message and speak to a member of the clinical team.

All administrative staff are subject to full disclosure checks like all our staff, to ensure that they are safe and capable of working with young people. They are bound by the same confidentiality agreement as all staff working within NHS Forth Valley.

Referrals

We accept referrals for children 0-18years* (0-16years for Learning Disabilities). We do not accept a self referral but you can be referred to CAMHS by the Named Person Service (ie your health visitor, school staff or pastoral staff), General Practitioner or any other child care professional working within Forth Valley. It is the role of all professionals working with children to consider and respond to wellbeing concerns or when your difficulties are affecting your development. As CAMHS is a specialist service we would expect a single service Initial Wellbeing Assessment to be completed prior to referral.

For those under 5 years we prefer you to have seen or been assessed by Paediatricians prior to referral to CAMHS as they take a lead for children under 5 years old.

If the reason for referral is due to concerns you may have about neuro developmental difficulties e.g. ADHD, or an autistic spectrum profile then we would expect you have already been seen or been involved with services, particularly within School e.g. Educational Psychologist, Staged Intervention or Team Around the Child.  If you have some concerns you should speak to the Named Person Service first to ensure that a coordinated approach to assessment for these difficulties is attempted from the start. Early intervention with developmental disorders may include a period of monitoring or the need for further assessment within school.  Developmental difficulties often come to light when a child gets older i.e. throughout the course of their development.  Families with children with developmental (and behavioural) problems can access other support, advice and intervention from other named professionals before referral to CAMHS or when waiting on a referral e.g. parent training and management support.  There is a Guidance Document which, although designed for professionals, may help you to understand available here.

Our referral criteria document is available here. We have added an appendix that lists some common reasons for referral to CAMHS and suggestions for alternative supports. CAMHS teams are very different across the country so if you move areas it maybe the service you previous experienced may not be available. National CAMHS Referral Criteria indicates that referrals for CAMHS should be made on the following basis:

Condition 1 (basic threshold)

A child/young person* has or is suspected to have a mental disorder or other condition that results in persistent symptoms of psychological distress.

Condition 2 (complexity and severity threshold)

There is also the existence of at least one of the following:

• An associated serious and persistent impairment of their day to day social functioning.
• An associated risk that the child/young person may cause serious harm to themselves or others.

Where there is evidence of an associated significantly unfavourable social context (e.g. a child in care, a sibling, a parent or carer with significant mental or physical health problems, a child who has been the victim of abuse or who has experienced domestic abuse) a multidisciplinary approach should be taken ensuring appropriate inclusion of relevant agencies.

* There is some variance of the upper age range for CAMH services which is 18 years for core services and 16 years for LD CAMHS

Coming to CAMHS