North Camden Community CAMHS, OpenMinded

What is it?

Local Services

Service Info

Helps Camden young people with emotional health & wellbeing.
Uses i-THRIVE to put young people & families’ needs first.
Works with schools to support children’s mental health.

Here's more detail

Published: 01/03/21

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General information

CAMHS means Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We are part of the National Health Service (NHS) and work with others in Camden to support and help young people and their families.

In CAMHS we specialise in providing help and treatment for children and young people (0-18 years) with emotional health and wellbeing needs.

What to expect

On receiving a referral for a young person, our Clinical Intake Team will be carefully considering what the main concerns are, understanding what the young person and families wishes are and appreciating any other information that has been shared (e.g. from the GP or School). We know that many young people and families are resilient and have a lot of strengths in coping with challenges around emotional wellbeing and so we are keen to understand what might be already working and helping at the same time as understanding any areas that may need additional support.

CAMHS works very closely with partnering agencies, these can be in NHS, Local Authority or the Voluntary Sector settings. Lots of these services are very experienced in supporting children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and we always think of these partners throughout a young person’s journey in CAMHS, so from the start of referral, at assessment, during any therapy work and at the conclusion of CAMHS also.

We aim to work with young people and families using the i-THRIVE framework, this is an integrated, person-centred and needs-led approach to delivering mental health services for children, young people and families. This means that mental health needs are defined by children, young people and families, alongside professionals, through shared decision making.

The i-THRIVE framework aims to:

Talk about mental health and wellbeing support using a common language that everyone understands
Focus on joined-up working between services to ensure a collaborative and consistent approach to every child and young person’s care
Think about the mental health and wellbeing needs of children, young people and families through five different needs-based groupings, including:
- Thriving
- Getting Advice
- Getting Help
- Getting More Help
- Getting Risk Support

Thriving

Children and young people who need support to maintain mental wellbeing through effective prevention and promotion. This group includes those at risk of developing mental health difficulties.

Getting Advice

Children, young people and families who need advice and signposting. This group includes both those with mild or temporary difficulties, and those with fluctuating or ongoing severe difficulties who are managing their own health and not wanting goals-based specialist input. The input from CAMHS might be signposting to other services and providing advice around self-management.

Getting Help

Children, young people and families who need specific interventions relating to their mental health need. This group includes those who would benefit from evidence-based help and support with clear aims and agreed criteria for assessing if these aims have been achieved. Depending on the needs of the young person, this therapeutic support can be offered by different therapeutic services. This group might also receive input from CAMHS, which could include interventions focused on goals and outcomes, informed by evidence.

Getting More Help

Children, young people and families who need more extensive and specialised interventions and support relating to their mental health needs. This group includes those who would benefit from evidence-based help and support with clear aims and agreed criteria for assessing whether these aims have been achieved. The input from CAMHS might be more extensive with specialist treatment, including inpatient admissions if required.

Getting Risk Support

Children, young people and families who have not benefitted from or are unable to use help, but are of such a risk that they still need contact with services. The group includes those who have already been offered extensive input with limited therapeutic progress. The input from CAMHS will be risk management, crisis response and supporting the network.

Following an accepted referral into the service, you are likely to be contacted by either by a Community CAMHS Administrator or your allocated CAMHS Clinician who will arrange a CAMHS Assessment appointment, this will likely take 1.5 – 2 hours. If you have any questions about this, please speak with the CAMHS Clinician.

Following the CAMHS Assessment, there will be some conversations with you/your family and within our team about what support can be offered, whether this support is from ourselves within CAMHS or other appropriate services within Camden.