CAMHS (Mental Health)

NHS Tayside CAMHS service provides specialist assessment and treatment for school aged children and young people who remain on a school roll, who have or are suspected to have, a significant mental health condition. Pre-school children should have their needs addressed by an early years professional such as a health visitor or community paediatrician.

There are two main bases for CAMHS within NHS Tayside:

• Centre for Child health is at 19, Dudhope Terrace, Dundee and hosts the multidisciplinary teams for Dundee and Angus.
• 8, St Leonards bank, Perth hosts our Perth multidisciplinary team.

We accept referrals from professionals currently involved with the child/young person, including schools, social workers, educational psychologists, GPs, paediatricians (community and hospital).

Tayside CAMHS also have their own website with further general information for professionals, young people are their parents/carers:
 https://www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/OurServicesA-Z/CAMHS/index.htm

Emergency referrals may be due to:

• Severe depression symptoms with suicidal ideations
• Severe psychotic symptoms
• Significant risk of harm to self or others
• Anorexia with severe physical signs (BMI <15), for further information see Eating Disorders page and  Medical Emergencies in Eating Disorders - Guidance on Recognition and Management
• Care Experienced children/young people (previously known as 'looked after')

Emergency referrals will be accepted from GPs, hospital doctors, community paediatricians and 'the Corner', following a face-to-face assessment. They must be discussed with the CAMHS Response Team and if accepted, will be seen within 24 hrs (Mon-Fri).

Outpatient Referrals
CAMHS is a specialist provision offering a service for children and young people who are experiencing persistent, complex or severe mental health difficulties (see referral criteria below). There are two distinct referral pathways, namely for 'neurodevelopmental' problems (e.g. ASD/ADD/ASD/intellectual disability) and 'specialist CAMHS' for other mental health disorders'. Neurodevelopmental referrals would ordinarily come through schools or Community Child Health. More information can be found under 'how to refer' for each condition.

Urgent Outpatient Referrals via SCI Gateway - are for those young people who are requiring urgent mental health assessment which may be defined as young person with significant deterioration in mental wellbeing, has intrusive thoughts and/or acting on these which includes self-harm, is at risk however safety plans are in-place. These will be appointed within 5 working days'.

Routine Outpatient Referrals
If you are able to answer YES to 2 or more of these following questions, then CAMHS may be the most appropriate service to address the needs of a child or young person you are concerned about:

1. Have the mental health difficulties been present for longer than 6 months?
2. Has there been a sudden unexplained change in behaviour?
3. Are there complex risk factors present?  E.g. Care experienced? Parental mental health issues? History of abuse? Previous mental health difficulties?
4. Are the mental health difficulties having a 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? 

• Emergency referrals should be discussed with the CAMHS Response Team 
• Advice. If you are unclear or need advice about urgency of referral, please consider phoning to discuss with the CAMHS duty worker for either Dundee/Angus or Perth via switchboard.
• Outpatient Referrals via SCI-Gateway/Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (Perth choose St Leonards Bank, Dundee/Angus choose - Centre for Child Health)

• Consent. Please ensure that you have consent to make the referral. If the young person does not wish for their parents to know, please state this clearly in the referral and explain how CAMHS should best contact this young person by phone and in writing. 

• Specialist CAMHS is not the appropriate service for children and young people who are experiencing normal reactions to a significant life event, such as a bereavement or parental separation or normal developmental changes.
• Primary care management advice and links to resources are highlighted for the conditions listed below and should be used to help support children and their families, especially when symptoms are mild.
• Neurodevelopmental conditions. The following conditions are assessed via the paediatric neurodevelopmental pathway, which is separate to the specialist CAMH service. Specific guidance regarding referral is found below and ordinarily would be via the school for school aged children or via Community Child Health for preschool age children:
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
  • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
  • Intellectual/learning disabilities
  • Tics and Tourette's Syndrome
• Enuresis and encopresis are not presenting problems that CAMHS would address. Further information can be found from www.eric.org.uk, which includes a free downloadable toolkit for parents and professionals. If further input is required, referral to paediatrics incontinence clinic may be more appropriate.
• Due to increased demand, transformational change is required in order to develop a model of work that best meets the needs of children, young people and their families across Tayside.

• Common Concerns (Practical advice for a number of common symptom presentations produced by CAMHS team)
• NHS inform(a range of information leaflets as well as self-help guides)
• Anxiety Moodjuice self-help guide. 
• The Corner Dundee (11-19)
• Decider Skills (The Decider Skills are winning strategies for mental health. Effective Cognitive Behaviour Therapy skills for children, young people and adults; enabling them to monitor and manage their own emotions and mental health).