Enhancing the CAMHS referral process – have your say!
We’re looking for CAMHS staff, parents/carers, children and young people, and key referrers (e.g. GPs, teachers, SENCOs etc) to take part in some online focus groups to share their experiences of the CAMHS referral process.
We know there are some challenges with referring to CAMHS, because around a quarter of children and young people who are referred are not ultimately offered treatment. We are holding online focus groups to learn about where problems exist in the referral process when children and young people are being referred to CAMHS, and to help us understand the barriers to making appropriate referrals.
The enhancing CAMHS referrals project (EnCAMHS) aims to understand what the difficulties are in making referrals to CAMHS services. Once we understand some of the difficulties associated with making CAMHS referrals, we want to improve the quality of referrals to CAMHS so that only children and young people who can be helped by CAMHS are referred; and so that others can be guided to receive help they need elsewhere.
We are holding groups on the following dates/times before Christmas:
For those just in Greater Manchester:
- Weds 8th Dec, 5-6
- Thurs 9th Dec, 4-5
For those anywhere in England, including GM:
- Fri 3rd Dec, 12-1:30
- Thurs 9th Dec, 12:30-2
- Fri 10th Dec, 12-1:30
Background: More than 260,000 children in the UK were referred for clinical help to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in England in 2018/2019; this number has risen steadily for the last five years. About one quarter of children referred to CAMHS by their GPs, schools or parents are rejected for treatment by services because the correct referral process has not been followed. This is clearly distressing for children and families who may wait a long time for an appointment at CAMHS and are turned away without necessarily being signposted elsewhere. The process is also very costly to services because time is wasted reviewing documents and following up with referrers about children who should have been referred for alternative help.
We aim to understand what the difficulties are in making referrals to CAMHS services. We want to improve the quality of referrals to CAMHS services so that only children and young people who can be helped by CAMHS are referred; and so that others can be guided to receive help they need elsewhere.
PPI Focus groups: We are holding focus groups with key CAMHS stakeholders to learn about where problems exist in the referral process and understand the barriers to making appropriate referrals. We shall discuss together possible ways to solve the problems identified. These will be online focus groups held via zoom.
If anyone is interested or would like more information, please contact zara.bernard@manchester.ac.uk
If anyone if interested and cannot attend these, we can send them dates and times for groups in the New Year just email and ask.
