Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
The Devon Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) provide help for children and young people who may be experiencing problems with their emotional or psychological wellbeing or mental health.
Support available:
- Psychosis
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Child Sexual Abuse Support
- Self Harm
NHS England issues mental health advice for children going back to school
NHS England’s is urging parents to be alert to signs that children could be experiencing anxiety, distress or low mood as some pupils return to school this week. NHS mental health services remain available for children and young people. and NHS England are working in partnership with schools and other services to support children and their families.
Parents can also take simple steps to help children who might be struggling to deal with the loneliness and uncertainty of lockdown or fears about returning to school. For more information, links and guidance click here.
Support during coronavirus
We are continuing to deliver our services to young people and their families during coronavirus – including additional crisis support. We have had to make some temporary changes to the way that we do things, for example in minimising face-to-face contact, but our teams are here to support you.
Help in a crisis
If a child or young person under the age of 18 is experiencing a mental health crisis you can now access Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) 24/7.
Self-referrals are accepted from children/young people and their parents/carers. Pre-referral telephone support also available for GPs.
Please contact 0808 196 8708 (Freephone)
In the event of an emergency please call 999.
A list of helpful resources, apps and organisations to support children, families and young people can be found here
Have you ever or are you currently using inpatient or CAMHS services?
The South West Mental Health Clinical Network and the South west Participation Team are involved in work aimed at improving CAMHS inpatient and day patient services. A critical element of this is listening carefully to the voices of young people and parent carers, and understanding how they want to be involved. We would like to speak to any young people or parent carer, who are currently using, or who have had contact with intensive or crisis mental health services. We would like to talk them about their experiences, and in what ways they think they could be involved to best design, run and monitor services. To value and support their time and contributions payments are available in accordance with the Universities policy of reimbursing experts by experience.
If you would like to get involved please contact Emma Wright: E.N.Wright@exeter.ac.uk
Children and young people may need help with a wide range of issues at different points in their lives. Parents and carers may also need help and advice to deal with behavioural or other problems their child is experiencing. Parents, carers and young people can receive direct support through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.
How can we help?
The CAMHS team will see children and young people where there are concerns about their emotional or psychological wellbeing or mental health. If our service is the right one for you, we will work in collaboration with you to see how we can best be of help. We use outcome measures to support us in using the most effective therapy. These measures are questionnaires which keep us on track by asking you for regular feedback on how things are and measure if your child’s difficulties are getting any easier.
Our specialist team can offer many different treatment options, depending on the difficulties being experienced and the type of problem. Some of the ways we can support you include:
- Consultation (to a professional, or parents/carers of the child)
- Individual therapy or talking therapies
- Young people’s groups
- Family therapy
- Cognitive behavioural therapy
- Psychotherapy
- Medication
- Art or play therapy
- Diagnostic assessment
- Consultant psychiatry
- Groups for young people and parent/carers
We will explain and discuss possible options with you at your appointment and talk with you about the estimated length of your treatment.
Who might my child see?
The team is made up of a range of professionals including:
- Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists
- Clinical psychologists
- Family therapists
- Cognitive behavioural therapists
- Child psychotherapists
- Community psychiatric nurses
- Creative therapists (play, art and drama therapy)
- Occupational therapists
- Mental health support workers
- Primary mental health workers
What happens next?
Once the request for help from CAMHS has been accepted, you will be offered an initial assessment. This initial appointment is an opportunity for you to tell us about the difficulties and together we can assess what we might need to do next. Sometimes a single appointment is all that is needed, but if you do need a series of appointments we will assign a clinician with the appropriate skills and work in partnership with you. Sometimes more specialist intervention is needed and we will discuss this with you so that you are clear about what happens next.
Participation in Devon CAMHS
In CAMHS we believe very strongly that children, young people, parents and carers should have a say in the way we develop and improve our service – it’s a service for children, young people and families after all. We have a Participation Worker whose job is to make sure we do our best to involve children, young people and families and to support and encourage them to share their views.
The people that get involved do all sorts of different things including interviewing people for jobs in CAMHS (and other children and young people’s services), helping to train staff, taking part in workshops to help improve different parts of the service, helping to write information for leaflets and our website, and anything else that comes up!
We really appreciate and value the ideas of children, young people and families and the time they find to help us. If you think you might be interested in helping with this work, please get in touch.
What is the process?
Letter for Tomorrow
Four of CFHD’s participation young advisors have been involved in creating the ‘Letter for Tomorrow’. The letter is a powerful and moving piece of work that is intended to give hope and encouragement to other young people that are facing difficult times and experiencing suicidal thoughts. Astro, Hollie and Malcolm have personal experience of suicide and wrote and recorded an audio version of the letter. Scarlett produced the artwork for the letter.
The Letter for Tomorrow was launched, along with the Letter of Hope (for adults) to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on 10th September. Hollie and Lucy Eyre (Operations Manager Risk Support Pathway CFHD) appeared on ITV news to promote the letter.
Read the Letter for Tomorrow.
Location of Centres
We will arrange to see you at a location convenient to you or near to your home, which may or may not be listed below. You should not visit the locations below unless we have sent you an appointment and requested that you do. If you need help please contact us using the number on this page.
Contacts
Children and Family Health Devon
Single Point of Access Team
1a Capital Court
Bittern Road
Sowton Industrial Estate
Exeter EX2 7FW
e:CFHD.DevonSPA@nhs.net
t: 0330 0245 321
