Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
Warrington CAMHS is a team of different professionals who can offer support to children and young people with mental health issues, and their families.
Some of the types of problems CAMHS work with include anxiety, depression, eating difficulties and coping with traumatic experiences.
Children and young people cannot ring up for an appointment, they must be referred by a professional such as a doctor, social worker, health visitor or school nurse.
The First Appointment
The young person and their parent or carer will usually be invited for an appointment with one or two members of the CAMHS team. This is called an initial assessment and lasts about 60 minutes.
If this assessment shows that CAMHS can help, the staff member and the young person will create a treatment/intervention plan.
Support
The help that CAMHS can offer is mostly talking. Sessions last no longer than one hour and some people may only need a few meetings to help them feel better. Meetings do not have to take place at a CAMHS clinic – they can be at school, at home or in a doctor’s surgery.
The service can also offer help through play, art and occasionally medication.
Confidentiality
Parents are invited to the meeting with their child because they are legally responsible for them and can learn ways to support them. Nobody else has to know that a person is receiving help from the service.
Only the professional who referred the young person and their GP will be informed of their progress. If a CAMHS member thinks the person needs help from someone else either within the service or an outside professional, they will always try to ask the young person before they talk to them.
Related pages:
Contact us:
Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services
1st Floor Guardian House
Guardian Street
Warrington, WA5 1TP
Tel: 01925 405700
Fax: 01925 405725
