Child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) (Barnsley)
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About the service
CAMHS stands for child and adolescent mental health services. We are the NHS service that offers support and treatment for children and young people, aged up to 18 years old, who are experiencing difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing.
We also support parents, carers and families of these children and young people.
In Barnsley, CAMHS is made up of several teams who specialise in different areas and work together to support children, young people and families during their journey with CAMHS.
Our teams are made up of lots of different healthcare professionals who have experience of working specifically with children and young people. This includes nurses, social workers, psychologists, doctors, therapists and support workers.
What can Barnsley CAMHS help with?
Usually, when a child or young person feels sad, stressed, frightened, or worried, these feelings will pass with time and with help from family, friends, teachers or other health or care professionals. There’s a lot of evidence and research that shows how eating well, doing activities that you enjoy and getting a good night’s sleep also help with protecting and improving your mental health.
However, sometimes these feelings can go on for a very long time and can negatively affect everyday life, for example, friendships, school, college and home life. When things get to this point, Barnsley CAMHS can offer you, and those around you, more support.
We help young people with some of the following problems or difficulties:
- Feelings of sadness, low mood or depression
- Obsessive thoughts and behaviours such as having to check or repeat things
- Anxiety issues, including panic attacks
- Self-harm and thoughts of hurting themselves
- Suicidal thoughts or thoughts that “I don’t want to be here anymore”
- Problems with eating and food
- Long standing difficulties with coping after a scary and traumatic event.
- We also can give parents and carers of children and young people advice on how to support their child with the difficulties they are experiencing.
We work in partnership with other health and care professionals to meet the needs of children, young people and families as a whole. These professionals include mental health support teams in schools, school staff, GPs and social workers.
How do Barnsley CAMHS help?
CAMHS provide a range of support depending on what is needed. Support may take place over the telephone, online or face to face. This support may include:
- Signposting to other relevant services and resources
- Group work for anxiety, low mood and self-confidence
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Family work and therapy
- Psychological and psycho-educational interventions
- Creative therapies
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy
- Medication
- Urgent support when there is an immediate mental health risk
Where are CAMHS based in Barnsley?
CAMHS can work flexibly to support you. This means we can provide appointments via the telephone, online or face to face (including in homes and community settings). Each appointment type and location of the appointment is planned to suit your needs.
CAMHS is based at New Street Health Centre, in the centre of Barnsley, just opposite the car park of the large Morrisons.
CAMHS – entrance two
New Street Health Centre,
Upper New Street,
Barnsley
S70 1LP
When should I contact Barnsley CAMHS?
Contacting and getting support, treatment or an appointment with the team is known as making a ‘referral’.
Most people that contact or ‘refer’ into CAMHS have already received emotional and/or mental health support from another health or care professional or service. This could include; school staff, the team at HEY!, voluntary agencies, or another counselling service.
If things haven’t improved from this initial support, or somebody else suggests that your child or young person might need extra help, then a referral can be made into Branching Minds Barnsley – which is made up of the local mental health support team and CAMHS staff.
CAMHS can also help with urgent concerns regarding a child or young person who needs immediate support from a mental health professional. This can be referred to as ‘crisis support’. However, we always encourage young people, parents, carers or health, care, education and other professionals to contact Branching Minds Barnsley before a concern reaches this point.
How to contact or ‘refer’ into Branching Minds Barnsley
To request mental health and emotional wellbeing support, professionals, parents and carers and young people can contact the Branching Minds Barnsley team on 01226 107377 or complete the request for support form and send this to BarnsleyCYPMHRequestSupport@swyt.nhs.uk.
Please note that a child or young person must be registered with a GP practice in Barnsley, or attend a school in Barnsley, to request support.
When requesting support, a member of the team will ask different questions to help understand how best to support you and your child or young person.
The Branching Minds Barnsley team is available Monday – Thursday, 9am to 4:30pm and Friday, 9am to 4pm (excluding bank holidays).
For emergency support outside of these hours, please contact your out of hours GP (by calling your practice number as usual) or NHS 111.
You should only contact the emergency services on 999 or go to your nearest A&E if:
- Someone’s life is at risk – for example, they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose
- You do not feel you can keep yourself or someone else safe.
When a young person attends A&E with concerns for their mental health, they will have an emergency assessment undertaken by the all age liaison team based at the hospital. CAMHS will then be informed and one of the team will offer a follow up contact within seven days (this could be face to face or over the phone and could be on a weekend or bank holiday).
✰ Resources to help you ✰
Local resources include, but are not limited to those given below:
- BMBC Directory
- Barnsley Youth Council
- Targeted youth support Barnsley
- IAPT
- Compass
- 0-19
- Social prescribing for 18+
- Bereavement services and Good Grief Trust
- Social care
- IDAS
- Mermaids / young minds / Tavistock (gender identity)
- ORCHA
Our colleagues in Wakefield CAMHS have developed a resources area which has lots of information and downloadable workbooks, leaflets and materials to help support you, or your child.
Staff you may meet
- Administrative staff provide essential support to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. This can be in a variety of different settings, with administrators working as a receptionist in a clinic or a clerk on a ward. They may also be working closely with a consultant as a medical secretary.
- Dietitians use the science of food to help people to make good choices about food and lifestyle. Nutrition is an important part of recovery and wellbeing. All service users admitted to a Trust ward have their nutritional state assessed.
- There are more than 60 different specialities that doctors work within the NHS. Each is unique but there are many characteristics which are common. Roles range from working in a hospital to being based in the community as a GP.
- There are many people who work behind the scenes to keep services running and you may meet them in hospital or community settings. They include porters, cleaners, plumbers, electricians, decorators receptionists and secretaries who all work to make sure healthcare settings are kept clean, tidy and safe.
- Nurses who choose to specialise in the mental health branch of nursing work with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others, to help care for patients. Increasingly, care is given in the community, with mental health nurses visiting patients and their families at home, in residential centres, in prisons or in specialist clinics or units.
- Occupational therapy is the assessment and treatment of physical and psychiatric conditions using specific, purposeful activity to prevent disability and promote independent function in all aspects of daily life.
- The NHS employs a wide range of clinical staff, it wouldn’t be possible to list them all on this website! All our clinical staff are skilled, dedicated professionals who adhere to high standards of training and work-place practice.
- Receptionists are the first link for many patients and visitors. They often work on their own or with one or two other receptionists, greeting patients as they arrive and check them in. They might also collect patient notes and ensure that these vital records go to the right healthcare professional. In a clinic, they may make appointments and arrange patient transport.
- Social workers help, support and protect people who are facing difficulties in their lives. They help people to take positive steps to overcome problems and improve their lives. This could involve assessing and reviewing a service user’s situation, building relationships with service users and their families and agreeing what practical support someone needs.
- We have a range of health workers who all have different specialities. This could be in a certain condition, a therapy or the advice they can give you. Our specialists our highly skilled and trained professionals, ready to offer you help and advice whenever you need it.
Support offered
Professional support offered:
In Barnsley CAMHS, all referrals, excluding emergency or urgent presentations, will be triaged through the Branching Minds Barnsley team, who will handle all requests for support, including those from professionals and partner agencies.
The Branching Minds Barnsley team brings together the local mental health support team (MHST) at Compass Be and CAMHS who work in partnership to help children and young people and their families/carers to get the right support at the right time, whilst providing more seamless care.
The Branching Minds Barnsley team will review the requests, provide advice and guidance or allocate the appropriate support (e.g., the MHST for mild to moderate issues and CAMHS for specialised support) depending on individual needs. Previous service-specific referral routes such as CAMHS SPA will be re-directed into Branching Minds Barnsley team.
Any professional, for example a GP, a social worker, a school staff member or a youth worker, can make a request for support.
It’s important to note that the threshold for CAMHS intervention or treatment is high and not all mental health and wellbeing concerns meet the threshold for intervention within CAMHS as a specialist mental health service. Other partners within Barnsley offer support with mental health and wellbeing concerns such as Chilypep and the MHST.
Mood and emotional pathway and complex behaviour pathway: These specialist pathways are where most of our children, young people and families receive therapeutic interventions. They support children and young people presenting with a wide range of moderate to severe mental health difficulties such as anxiety, low mood, OCD, trauma, attachment-based issues and neurodevelopmental conditions (as well as others).
Crisis and home-based treatment team (C&HBTT): The C&HBTT work with some of the most risky and vulnerable young people and their families in service. The team work across seven days all year round and offer timely and intensive support to those children and young people at risk of significant self-harm or suicide. Within this team is also the eating disorder pathway (ED). The ED pathway has a dedicated eating disorder practitioner and some specialist dietetic input. Alongside other practitioners in C&HBTT, risks associated with eating disorders are managed intensively in the community to try to reduce and prevent any inpatient admissions.
Children in care (CIC) pathway: Any referral made into the service for a child or young person in care will go through this pathway. Consultations are undertaken with a range of professionals and the carers of the child or young person to fully understand the reason behind the referral into CAMHS, and what support the child, young person or carer requires.
Outcomes
We aim to support and promote the psychological and physical wellbeing of children, young people and their families.
We aim to offer a timely and accessible service to children, young people and their families who have mental health problems in the Barnsley area. Our teams ensure that individuals have access to the appropriate support and intervention as quickly as possible, and all interventions are based on the latest clinical evidence and will be delivered by skilled and experienced clinicians.
This allows us to ensure the best possible outcomes for people accessing our service and identify early indications of psychological difficulties.
Referrals accepted from:
A & E, AHPs, CMHTs, Consultants, Courts, Drug/alcohol agencies, Family/carers of children and young people up to 18 years old, GP staff, GPs, Health visitors, Hospital staff, Housing associations, Local authority staff, Midwives, Other NHS services, Other Trust services, Police, Schools, Single Point of Access team, Voluntary services, Young people aged 16 and 17, Youth centres, Youth Offending Team
Referral criteria:
Please ensure you have read the information on this page to help you understand whether Barnsley CAMHS is appropriate for you or your child’s needs. We would encourage you to discuss with the Branching Minds Barnsley team should you have any queries prior to making a request for support.