You told us, we listened

We listened and did this:

Forensic CAMHS referral not followed up

It is difficult to make specific recommendations when we are not aware of case details. We would expect any referral made to another service to be followed up on if we have not had an appropriate response as per the Forensic CAMHS own receiving process. We will take this concern and remind our clinicians of the necessity to never assume that referrals are acted on and completed, to always follow up to close any loops or risk any referrals being lost.

Confidentiality breach (Caseload notes of wrong child sent to family)

We are aware that there has been a confidentiality breach where information was sent to the wrong family through administrative error. This was reported through the trust DATIX investigation system and appropriate lessons were learned to minimise the risk of this happening again. This included a review of this incident and ensuring that information is thoroughly checked as being accurate before sending.

Lack of options around therapy e.g. limited art therapy

Barnsley CAMHS has a wide variety of therapeutic offers to meet need. Therapeutic offers would include:  CBT, IPT-A, Family Therapy, DDP, Psychology, Thera play, Play Therapy, Art Therapy, Psycho-social Interventions, VR (Virtual Reality Therapy), EMDR, Psychiatry, Group Work.  We have 1 Art Therapist in the service which is in line with our financial limitations.  It can be difficult to ensure timely access if this is patient preference for treatment. We have recently begun taking on senior Art Therapy Students who would be closely supervised by our qualified Art therapist to try and widen the offer in this specific area.

We listened and did this:

We offer a full range of person-centred and psychological therapies in our Core and Enhanced pathways for people who have an assessed need and for whom psychological interventions would be clinically indicated and beneficial. We also provide a wider range of psychological interventions in Talking Therapies: access to these services is by self-referral.

Crisis care screening is done at the point of referral, and this is predominantly conducted by SPA, Liaison services or the Intensive Home Based Treatment Team in response to a referral from primary care or other referrer. The crisis model is one that largely accepts that assessment should be offered as standard and thus any screening is conducted jointly with the referrer or done as part of the initial assessment.

We listened and did this:

All people discharged from services receive a letter outlining the basis for their discharge which includes information on community and voluntary services in the area, the recovery college, text and phone numbers for access to support should that be needed in the future, information leaflets, web addresses etc that may be beneficial/appropriate. This information is also sent to the GP.

Consistently over 80% of people referred to our services are seen within 14 days and over 95% commence their treatment within 6 weeks. Where there may be delays whilst people then await specific or specialist advice, consideration is given to other services in the local community whilst someone waits to access treatment or which may be of more or added benefit.

We listened and did this:

EMDR is available as a therapy option in all Kirklees Core and Enhanced teams. Access to this would be dependent upon it being assessed as clinically appropriate.

We listened and did this:

We listened and did this:

Barnsley paediatric autism assessment service is currently operating an average of 22-24 months waiting list. There is no outsourced commissioned services outside Barnsley for the ages 0-18 years old.

If a referral was received into Barnsley and the child moved out of area, this would then mean that the referral would be moved to the child’s local Trust where they had moved to.

Autism assessment referrals have seen an increase in waiting times due to national demand and post covid recovery.  Barnsley waiting times are in line with neighbouring assessment services.

We listened and did this:

Services will liaise with partner organisations on their time frames for follow up following our referral to them so that this information can be shared with the person. Contact details for the follow up service will be given to the person so that they can make direct contact if the timeframe feels extended.

We listened and did this:

Talking Therapies (TT) provide prioritised assessment and treatment for Armed Forces Veterans (AFV) as per the TT AFV Positive Practice Guide.  An AFV can either self-refer or a referral can be made on their behalf by a health professional, and they will undergo an assessment to assess suitability for support with Talking Therapies. If Talking Therapies is not identified as the most appropriate service for that person, then they will be signposted/ referred to relevant services in the local community.

Talking Therapies currently offers therapy in different modalities, including telephone, video conferencing, type talk and face-face. The type of delivery is normally guided by patient need and choice. Staff may read from a script when a person is being assessed, to ensure that the person is informed on important information, like confidentiality and information sharing. The script is designed to make sure that important information is not missed.