Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Birmingham is a large city with a range of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) that aim to support, help and intervene with children and young people who are experiencing emotional and mental health problems. Services are provided by a range of staff including Social Workers, Psychiatrists, Mental Health Nurses, Primary Care Mental Health Workers, Psychologists and other therapists.
CAMHS supports children and young people with:
- Emotional difficulties: eg: anxiety,
depression, anger, mood swings, low self-esteem. - Behavioural difficulities: eg: violence, destructiveness, self-harm, over activity, sexualised behaviours, obsessive behaviours.
- Relationship difficulties: eg: problems in the family, with peers, in school or the community, problems with attachment and loss.
- Developmental / disability diffculities: eg: bedwetting, soiling, problems eating / sleeping, communicating.
- Emotional diffculties associated with physical health problems, eg: difficulties in complying with treatment and psychological adjustment.
Services delivered are:
- Specialist assessment, both comprehensive and multidisciplinary including diagnosis.
- Therapy, including individual, family and group work.
- Consultation to statutory professionals, and other key workers about concerns.
- Co-working with key workers.
- Contribution to multidisciplinary care planning.
- Signposting to other services when a child needs can be more appropriately met by another service.
- Training for other professionals, e.g. primary care staff, education staff, foster carers and residential carers.
Priority is given to children and young people who are at most risk as a consequence of their emotional / mental health presentation. Emergency presentations would include:
- Children or young people who are presenting as a severe risk to themselves, eg: presenting with severe depression (including suicidal thoughts), acute psychosis, harming themselves.
High priority presentations would include children or young people:
- whose mental / emotional health is having a severe impact on their family or other placements (including children accommodated by the local authority)
- whose mental / emotional health is having a significant impact on their physical and or their development health, eg: eating disorders, treatment non-compliance etc
- who have experienced severe trauma, eg: witnessing major incidents, involvement in significant traffic accidents etc