Child and adolescent mental health services in Calderdale are delivered by a number of organisations that make up the Open Minds Partnership.
The Open Minds Partnership’s approach is based on a person’s individual need. It focusses on making help and support accessible through organisations working together to provide emotional health and wellbeing services.
Partner organisations work closely and share knowledge so a young person should only tell their story once, before being signposted to the right place for support or advice.
The Open Minds Partnership’s priority is to provide personalised care that meets each young person’s own needs and goals.
We offer assessment and interventions to children and young people who present with persistent and significant difficulties with the following:
Depression where severe or not responded to earlier intervention
Self-harm and suicide attempt
Severe anxiety (including obsessive compulsive disorder)
Eating disorders with significant risk or impairment (such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia)
Psychosis (in those aged under 14)
Somatoform disorders
ADHD that has reached the appropriate stage on the pathway.
Our aim is to improve the mental health of individuals accessing our service and we work closely with other Trust and community services to ensure the needs of the individual are best met. We work alongside other organisations, including children’s social care, Northpoint Wellbeing Services, schools, school nurses and other community-based organisations.
Why would someone choose the service?
The emotional wellbeing of children, young people and families accessing our service is the first priority of our team.
Our team work hard to build positive relationships with children during such a challenging period in their life. The coping strategies and self-management techniques our team use ensure that children can live life to their full potential.
Staff you may meet
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.
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.
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.
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.
Telephonists (also known as switchboard operators) are employed throughout the health service. They may work on a busy switchboard in a hospital or the Trust headquarters. Like receptionists, they are an important first point of contact for patients and their families and are a vital link between a caller and the person who can help.
Therapy is a broad term and can range from occupational therapists to behavioural therapists. Our therapists are trained in their specialist area and type of therapy to make sure we can offer the very best care.
Why a professional should choose the service
Our team is made up of highly skilled and experienced professionals who offer a wide range of evidence-based interventions.
We aim to ensure all of our emergency referrals are responded to by CAMHS staff within four hours of referral regardless of what time the referral is made. We aim to see all urgent referrals within five working days. For all non-urgent referrals to our service, we ensure that individuals are offered an appointment within four weeks of their referral being made, meeting our CQUIN indicator 6.1.
We work closely with local partners and professionals to meet the individual needs of every child and family that we see.
Our primary intervention team ensures that we can offer interventions at the earliest opportunity.
We are also able to offer emergency response and intensive home-based treatments to those in urgent need through our crisis team. This enables us to reduce or prevent the need for inpatient care.
We have specialist pathways for:
ADHD
ASD
Eating disorders
Learning disabilities
Looked after children
Support offered
Our specialist team offer a range of assessments, and if agreed by the young person and their family, a variety of treatment options that include:
Solution-focused therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Family work and therapy
Child psychodynamic psychotherapy
Art psychotherapy
Group work – dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT)
Behavioural management
Play therapy
Interpersonal therapy
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy (EMDR)
Medication
Outcomes
We aim to offer a timely and accessible service to children, young people and their families who have mental health problems in the Calderdale area. Our team ensure that individuals have access to the appropriate assessments, have support and treatment as quickly as possible and are managed in the community wherever possible.
Our team put the needs of children, young people and their families first, with the main focus of our work being to help improve their emotional wellbeing and ability to cope.
By offering a definitive diagnosis of an individual’s condition we hope to give them the confidence and necessary self-management skills to prevent their condition from relapsing in the future.
Referrals accepted from:
A & E, CMHTs, Consultants, GPs, Health visitors, Local authority staff, Other NHS services, Other Trust services, Police, Schools, Youth Offending Team
Calderdale specialist CAMHS accept mental health referrals up to the age of 18 years. All referrals are made to the service and not to named clinicians.
Referrals will be accepted where the child or young person is exhibiting one or more of the following:
Deliberate self harm
Major Affective Disorders such as depression or Bi-polar Disorder
Severe Eating disorder (Anorexia or Bulimia)
Chronic Emotional Problems, such as anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Learning disabilities
Pervasive development disorders (eg ADD) with co-morbidity
Long-standing and complex reaction to bereavement, loss or family breakdown
Severe behavioural problems in the family environment where intervention from primary care or Northpoint Wellbeing Services has been unsuccessful in effecting change
Psychosomatic Disorders
Emotional or psychological difficulties resulting from chronic medical conditions
Referrals will not be accepted for:
Problems which are primarily school-based
Substance misuse unless referred by local drug and alcohol services to request collaborative working or where there is an existing dual diagnosis of severe mental illness and substance misuse
Psychotic presentation in young people aged 14-18 (Insight Team remit)
Referrals will generally only be accepted where a child is registered with a Calderdale district GP or remains the responsibility of Calderdale district under responsible commissioning guidance.
The service will also provide an urgent mental health response to children and young people visiting within the geographical boundary.
Referrals into specialist CAMHS in Calderdale are now taken from the following providers:
