Child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) (Barnsley)
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About the service
The Barnsley child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) provides a comprehensive and quality service to children and young people in the Barnsley area. We provide services to children and young people up to their 18th birthday who are experiencing a wide range of behavioural, psychological and emotional problems, difficult relationships, trauma or abuse.
Our service is part of the children and young people improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) programme that works in partnership with children and young people to help improve and monitor services.
Barnsley CAMHS is made up of four teams:
- Child and adolescent unit
- Young people’s outreach team
- Community early intervention team
- Learning disabilities and development disorders team
We work in a variety of settings including health centres, clinics, schools or in service user homes.
Our specialist team is made up of psychiatrists, specialist nurses, psychologists, specialist social workers and therapists. We help children, young people and their families, on both an individual and group basis. We also offer our mental health expertise across children’s services in the area, providing consultation, training and advice to carers, families and other professionals.
Why would someone choose the service?
We regularly hold patient experience surveys for children, young people, families and carers using our service. Feedback consistently highlights that our staff are helpful and explain things in language that they can understand. They also comment that they feel listened to and treated with dignity and respect at all times.
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.
Why a professional should choose the service
The need for our service has steadily increased over recent years with referrals into CAMHS rising from 941 in 2006/07 to 1489 in 2014/15. We are committed to providing the best possible service to the children and young people in Barnsley and have a number of measures in place to ensure we monitor and maintain our high standards.
To facilitate a self-assessment process in respect of the 16 Care Quality Commission’s essential standards of quality and safety, the service maintains a quality framework. The framework assists with the collection and maintenance of local evidence and demonstrates compliance with criteria within each of the 16 outcomes.
We conduct regular audits of our service, including:
- Record keeping audits
- Health and safety audits
- CAMHS to adult mental health services transition audit
- DNA audit
A CAMHS wide Essence of Care meeting is held on a bi-monthly basis to help benchmark our work. Benchmarking activity includes:
- Communication benchmarking
- Outpatients benchmarking
100% of young people presenting to our service in an emergency are seen within 24 hours.
Support offered
We offer a range of support and interventions to children, young people, families and carers who use the Barnsley CAMHS service. Examples of support that we offer include:
- Brief solution focussed therapy (a goal-directed therapy that focuses on solutions instead of problems)
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think or behave)
- Evidence-based parenting interventions
- Eye movement desensitisation reprogramming (a treatment used to reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder)
- Family therapy
- Group therapies
- Play therapy
- Psychiatric assessment and diagnosis
- Psychologist assessment and interventions
Outcomes
We aim to improve and maintain the mental health of children and young people living in Barnsley.
Referrals accepted from:
A & E, Drug/alcohol agencies, GPs, Health visitors, Hospital staff, Local authority staff, Other NHS services, Other Trust services
Referral criteria:
We operate a single point of entry to Barnsley children and adolescent mental health services. A referral form for our service needs to be completed and can be sent via secure email to barnsleycamhs.referrals@nhs.net, posted or faxed to:
Barnsley CAMHS,
Child and Adolescent Unit,
New Street Health Centre,
Upper New Street,
Barnsley,
S70 1LP
Fax: 01226 433194
Our duty clinicians assess the level of urgency of all referrals and are able to respond to emergency referrals.
We accept referrals in cases where young people have not responded to interventions from preventative, health and support services and are still presenting significant mental health difficulties. The level of difficulty the child or young person experiences will be significantly interfering with their ability to cope. Factors such as level of parental or carer concern, level of distress in the young person, how long the problem has been going on, known risks or resilience factors will all be taken into account.
Individuals may show signs and symptoms suggestive of the following:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (from the age of six)
- Moderate to severe depression
- Attachment difficulties
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Autistic Spectrum Disorders (from the age of five)
- Phobia and severe anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder)
- Conduct disorder
- Psychosis
- Deliberate self-harm
- Tic disorders (including Tourettes syndrome)
- Eating disorders (such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia)
Children and young people under the age of 16 who take an overdose or seriously self-harm will be admitted to an appropriate ward at Barnsley Hospital. A mental health assessment will be undertaken by a member of our staff within the next working day of admission.
If young people aged between 16 and 18 who are in urgent need present at accident and emergency the CAMHS emergency out of hours service can be called on for immediate advice and assessment.