What does CAMHS do?
There are two main areas of work in CAMHS, referred to as Pathways.
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The first of these is the Mental Health Pathway.
This pathway is for children and young people aged 6 to 18 who are still on a school roll and who are experiencing significant and prolonged difficulties with their mental health. The signs and symptoms of these can be found in our information pages and resources sections.
Referrals should be made for children and young people whose difficulties have been present for 6 months or more, those who have a sudden and unexplained change in behaviour or presentation., or where there is significant impact on multiple areas of day to day functioning e.g. non-attendance at school, social withdrawal, significant sleep difficulties, eating issues, marked behavioural difficulties. Referrals should also be made where there are complex risk factors present e.g. looked after, parental mental health issues, history of abuse or previous mental health difficulties.
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The second pathway is referred to as the Neurodevelopmental Pathway.
This is for children and young people where there are concerns around the possibility of a developmental difficulty such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability or other complexities.
Children and young people who are referred through this pathway generally have difficulties out with those we would expect given their age and stage of development (they function differently from their peers). These difficulties affect more than one area of their life, have been around for a significant period of time or have always been around and where other things have been tried but have not helped.
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The first of these is the Mental Health Pathway.
This pathway is for children and young people aged 6 to 18 who are still on a school roll and who are experiencing significant and prolonged difficulties with their mental health. The signs and symptoms of these can be found in our information pages and resources sections.
Referrals should be made for children and young people whose difficulties have been present for 6 months or more, those who have a sudden and unexplained change in behaviour or presentation., or where there is significant impact on multiple areas of day to day functioning e.g. non-attendance at school, social withdrawal, significant sleep difficulties, eating issues, marked behavioural difficulties. Referrals should also be made where there are complex risk factors present e.g. looked after, parental mental health issues, history of abuse or previous mental health difficulties.
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The second pathway is referred to as the Neurodevelopmental Pathway.
This is for children and young people where there are concerns around the possibility of a developmental difficulty such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability or other complexities.
Children and young people who are referred through this pathway generally have difficulties out with those we would expect given their age and stage of development (they function differently from their peers). These difficulties affect more than one area of their life, have been around for a significant period of time or have always been around and where other things have been tried but have not helped.
