My child is very anxious about coming to CAMHS - I am worried they will not engage during the session - what should I do?
This is common - coming to talk with someone you don’t know about difficulties you are having isn’t an easy thing for anyone to do and we recognise this.
Staff at CAMHS will do their best to make this as easy as possible. Remember that we are used to supporting children and young people to talk about difficult things. To help your child prepare, you could spend a bit of time with them before the appointment supporting them to think about and write down the things they would like to be able to say and the things they feel it’s important for their worker to know. These can act as a reminder in case they feel anxious in the room. They can also write down any worries they have about coming, this will help us to plan for their future visits.
CAMHS now also have the ability to offer Near Me appointments. These appointments take place via the internet so if coming to an initial appointment is too difficult, please speak with us about the possibility of a Near Me appointment. It’s really important to see your child as it can make it hard for us otherwise to make a full initial assessment, but we can now be more flexible about how this is done.
Staff at CAMHS will do their best to make this as easy as possible. Remember that we are used to supporting children and young people to talk about difficult things. To help your child prepare, you could spend a bit of time with them before the appointment supporting them to think about and write down the things they would like to be able to say and the things they feel it’s important for their worker to know. These can act as a reminder in case they feel anxious in the room. They can also write down any worries they have about coming, this will help us to plan for their future visits.
CAMHS now also have the ability to offer Near Me appointments. These appointments take place via the internet so if coming to an initial appointment is too difficult, please speak with us about the possibility of a Near Me appointment. It’s really important to see your child as it can make it hard for us otherwise to make a full initial assessment, but we can now be more flexible about how this is done.
