Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

CAMHS is a specialist community NHS service for children and young people who have moderate to severe emotional and mental health problems (and their families). Services for children and young people's emotional and mental health are often described using a tiered (41KB) model, to reflect an increasing level of need. 

• Tier 1 refers to universal services provided by, for example, teachers, youth workers, school nurses. 
• Specialist CAMHS in Worcestershire operates at Tiers 2 and Tier 3. 
• Tier 4 CAMHS is hospital-based mental health care, usually provided on an in-patient basis. 

Worcestershire County Council joint commissioners, together with the providers of CAMHS, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, are designing new ways of working for community CAMHS teams in order to modernise the service. 

This web page provides you with an opportunity to contribute your views on the re-design. Commissioners and the service providers want to receive your feedback to help them design the most effective service models to meet local needs. All stakeholders are invited to send general comments on the service re-design by email to keverton@worcestershire.gov.uk. In addition, you may wish to respond to specific elements of the re-design using the links below.  General Practitioners (GPs) can give specific feedback here.

An assessment of needs and a service review for children and young people with emotional and mental health difficulties, which was conducted during the summer of 2011, made a number of recommendations for change in order to provide more accessible and effective services. These include:

	Draft Learning Disability (LD) Pathway CAMHS A re-modelled county-wide CAMH service for children and young people with learning disability and additional mental health needs. Find out more about the draft Learning Disability Pathway CAMHS
	Neuro-Developmental Pathway (ADHD and ASD including TIC Disorders) Revised care pathways for children and young people who require assessment and support for Attention Deficit and Hyper-Activity Disorder (ADHD) and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Find out more about the Neuro-Developmental Pathway for Young People - Final Draft.
	Single Point Access (SPA) A single point of access (SPA) for CAMHS to make the referral process clearer and more equitable across the county. Find out more about the SPA.
	Tier 2 CAMHS A re-designed CAMHS Tier 2 service, working more closely with partners in community settings such as schools, colleges and Children's Centres to support them to provide early help for children, young people and their families with emotional and mental health difficulties to prevent these difficulties becoming more severe. Further information for General Practitioners (GPs).  Find out more about Tier 2 CAMHS.
	Tier 3 Plus CAMHS A new Tier 3 Plus service to provide intensive community support for children and young people with urgent or severe mental health needs who might otherwise require hospital treatment. This will be planned alongside a re-modelled CAMHS out of hours service. Find out more about Tier 3 Plus CAMHS.