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 too.
In Barnsley, CAMHS is made up of several teams. Each team works in a slightly different way, and specialises in different areas, but we all 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 is a lot of evidence and research that shows how eating well, doing activities that you enjoy and getting a good nights 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 in order to meet the needs of children, young people and families as a whole. These professionals include schools, GPs and social workers.
How do Barnsley CAMHS help?
Professionals, parents and carers, alongside young people aged 16 and 17 can contact the Barnsley CAMHS team directly for support. Please note that a child or young person must be registered with a GP practice in Barnsley to access support from Barnsley CAMHS.
All calls or referrals are managed centrally by the CAMHS ‘Single Point of Access’ team, who are also known as ‘SPA’.
Upon contacting Barnsley CAMHS, you will be put through to the SPA team. During this initial conversation, the clinician will ask different questions this is to help us understand how best to support you and your child or young person.
CAMHS provide a range of support depending on what is needed. This support may include:
- Signposting to other relevant services and resources
- Group work for anxiety, low mood and self-confidence
- Solution-focused therapy and treatment
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Family work and therapy
- Art psychotherapy
- Play therapy
- Interpersonal therapy
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy
- Medication
- Urgent support when there is an immediate mental health risk
- Support may take place over the telephone, online or face to face
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 at homes and in 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 Morrison’s.
CAMHS – Entrance two
New Street Health Centre,
Upper New Street,
Barnsley
S70 1LP
Telephone: 01226 644829
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 TAD’s, Mindspace in schools, voluntary agencies, or another counselling service. If things haven’t improved from this initial support, CAMHS can help.
It could also be that somebody else suggests that your child or young person might need extra help, because they’ve noticed behaviours that cause them concern. Health care, education and other professionals can make referrals to CAMHS with your consent.
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 CAMHS before a concern reaches this point.
How to contact or ‘refer’ into Barnsley CAMHS
If you’re a professional, a young person aged 16 to 17 or a parent or carer of a child or young person under the age of 18, you can contact Barnsley CAMHS on 01226 644829, you will then be transferred to the SPA team.
We would encourage you to ring and discuss making a referral if you are at all unsure.
Barnsley CAMHS work Monday-Friday 9am – 5pm (excluding bank holidays)
In times of emergency, when a young person has presented to accident and emergency 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 the C&HBT 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)
For support required in an emergency 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
✰ 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
- Mindspace
- 0-19
- TADS
- 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 SPA team. From here we use a ‘pathways’ models, children and young people will be allocated to the appropriate pathway following a collaborative initial assessment.
Single Point of Access (SPA):
The Single Point of Access (SPA) is where the majority of referrals come into the service; we accept referrals from a wide range of sources but the majority come from GP’s and education. The team at SPA triage, redirect, and accept referrals and make contact with children, young people (CYP) and families at the earliest opportunity to provide advice and support and to ensure that CAMHS is the right place for the YP and families.
If a referral meets the service criteria and is accepted, the SPA team then schedule an “Initial Assessment” for the CYP and families. This is where we meet the CYP and gather any information that we haven’t managed to get previously. It also gives us a chance to talk to the CYP on their own (if appropriate) and understand what support that CYP and their family wants and needs. We complete risk assessments and devise an initial plan of care with the CYP so that after the assessment the CYP is really clear on what the next step in their journey is.
Where appropriate this might mean that therapeutic work is undertaken by the SPA team. This could be individual or group based work delivered by our team of qualified health professionals and wellbeing practitioners.
Mood and emotional pathway and Complex behaviour pathway: These specialist pathways are where the majority of our CYP and families receive therapeutic interventions. CYP 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): We work with some of the most risky and vulnerable young people and their families in service. This team work across seven days all year round and offer timely and intensive support to those YP 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, and alongside other practitioners in the CIHBTT risks associated with Eating disorders are managed intensively in the community to try to reduce and prevent any inpatient admissions.
Children in Care (CIC): Any referral made into the service for a CYP in care will go through this pathway. Consultations are undertaken with a range of professionals and the carers of the CYP to fully understand the reason behind the referral into CAMHS and what support the CYP or carers require.
Any professional, for example a GP, a social worker, a school staff member or a youth worker, can complete a referral and make a request for service, this will then be reviewed by our SPA team for suitability. However, the threshold for intervention or treatment is high and not all wellbeing concerns meet the threshold for intervention within CAMHS as a specialist mental health service.
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 SPA team should you have any queries prior to making a referral.