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Wolverhampton Information Network

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is a set of specialist services (Child and Family Service; Inspire - children's learning disability team) for young people of all abilities to support with mental health, emotional and psychological difficulties.

We aim to achieve this by doing the following:

  • offering support to young people directly through talking therapies
  • working with parents and carers, and siblings
  • working with members of the wider care system (for example: teachers, care staff)
  • working alongside others (this means that we will teach or support others to put the help in place with the young person)
  • offering services through local health centres, GP surgeries and schools when this is more appropriate or convenient.

Our aim is to support the young person and the family in understanding, managing and ultimately improving their own emotional wellbeing.

Clinical work is not time limited but will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that there is still benefit to the work, a clear focus and that all involved are still happy for the agreed work to be provided.

The Child and Family Service is a specialist service within CAMHS for chldren who present with severe and enduring (longer term) mental health difficulties.  Examples of these would be depression, anxiety, severe self-harm, suicidal intent, hearing voices.  Some of these youung people may also have some specific learning difficulties (for example, dyslexia) but will not have a learning disability.

Staff are specialist trained in the Child and Family Service and include psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers, child and adolescent pscyhiatrists, child psychotherapists, family and systemic psychotherapists, art pscyhotherapists.

Inspire supports children with a learning disability.  This part of CAMHS employs specialist staff who have expertise in working with young people with a learning disability.  Inspire can offer support with mental health related difficulties, as the Child and Family Service also does, but in addition it is able to support with the following issues where universal or previous input has been unsuccessful and where the issue is related to the young person’s learning disability:

  • Physical health difficulties (for example, toileting,feeding)
  • Social Skills Difficulties (for example, how to manage friendships and relationships)
  • General communication difficulties (for example, developing use of picture symbols)

Inspire employs staff with specialist training and qualifications in working with children with SEN and Learning Disabilities.

Staff within the wider CAMHS service will also have experience and skill in being able to engage with children who have disability and special educational needs. This will have been provided for many staff as part of their professional training. These staff will also have easy access to supervision and support from Inspire as and when required.

How we communicate with service users and involve them in decision making/planning

Views of young people and families using the service are gathered through on-going clinical appointments by the caseworkers. Views are also gathered through the use of questionnaires at the beginning and end of any intervention. Service users are also involved in the recruitment of staff to the services and service users have been involved in the development of handbooks and leaflets about the services. We also have a CAMHS Particiaption Group of young people that meet monthly.

We provide information leaflets and service handbooks for families.

In addition to the above, Inspire provide information in accessible format for the young people with a learning disability.

For users whose first language is not English we can book interpreters to support on clinical visits, in meetings and we can also have letters and reports translated into non-English languages at family request.

 

Covid 19 adaptations- We currently are offering the majority of our appointments, assessments and treatments via telephone or video-phone and variations to thi occur in discussion with the clinicians.

 

Wolverhampton CAMHS Transformation Plan Refresh 2018-2020

The Wolverhampton CAMHS Local Transformation Plan (2015-2020) was developed by Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group along with our partners in response to the publication of Future in Mind - promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing (report of the government's Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce in 2015).

This document has recently been refreshed. To view the new amended plan please click on the following link: Wolverhampton CAMHS Transformation Plan 

 

How our service is monitored and reviewed

Our service is monitored internally within the organisation to ensure quality of the service that we delivered. This monitoring is in line with quality standards that the service is expected to work to.

Our trust is reviewed and monitored by two organisations called Monitor and Care Quality Commission (CQC). Both of these organisations undertake reviews and inspections of the services that Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provide.

Our service is also monitored externally by the West Midlands Quality Review Service. This is an independent review organisation that reviews services against quality standards.

Who to contact

Contact Name
James Reeley
Contact Position
Service Manager and Clinical Lead for Wolverhampton CAMHS
Telephone
01902 444021 (Child and Family Service and Inspire)
E-mail
bchft.wolvescamhsspa@nhs.net
Website
Wolverhampton CAMHS

Where to go

Name
The Gem Centre
Address
Neachells Lane
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
Postcode
WV11 3PG
Notes

 

Our service operates from the GEM Centre and provides support across the city of Wolverhampton.  To get to the GEM Centre the nearest bus route is from the City Centre through to Wednesfield High Street.  The GEM Centre is then a 10 minute walk from the High Street along Neachells Lane.

The Gem centre is fully accessible to young people with sensory and physical disabilities.

A significant proportion of our appointments can take place at home or in schools, which makes it easier for young people to attend and this also means that we can be flexible to ensure that the appointment venue is accessible to the young person regardless of their particular disability or need.

We also have dedicated phone lines directly to the service so that young people or families can contact us if they wish to.

Other Details

Costs

Details
Our service is delivered entirely through the NHS so there is no charge for the services that we offer.

Availability

Age Ranges
Up to 18 years of age
Referral required
Yes
Referral Details

CAMHS works with young people up to the age of 18 years of age. To acces CAMHS young people must:

  • Be registered with a wolverhampton GP or for a looked after child be with Wolverhampton Local Authority

To access the Child and Family Service they must have a long standing mental health difficulty that impacts upon their day to day lives.

  • CAMHS operates a Single Point of Access to Child and Family Service and Inspire. The contact number for this service is 01902 444021. Parents and Carers are not able to make direct self referrals to CAMHS so we ask that a young person is referred to CAMHS by a professional who is supporting them. For example: GP, paediatrician, school teacher, social worker.
  • To access Inspire they must have a learning diasbility and also be presenting with an emotional wellbeing or mental health issue.

When a young person is referred into CAMHS the request for support is reviewed to make sure that:

  • The young person meets our criteria
  • The young person's needs couldn't be met better somewhere else
  • There has been some attempt to support the young person in the past

If a family move outside of Wolverhampton and they change their GP to a non-Wolverhampton GP then we would want to support a careful transition of support to the equivalent services local to where the family have moved to.

At the point of referral and first contact CAMHS will be able to advise on approximately how long you will need to wait before the start of ongoing treatment. This will be dependent upon your own particular circumstances.

Record Last Updated on: 30/06/2022

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