Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Children and Young Peoples Services (CAMHS & LDCAMHS)
1. What does your service do?
What is the key purpose of your service and how does it contribute to better outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families? What are the typical activities that you do?
. We are a child and young person mental health service supporting young people and their families. We aim to Improve the Mental Health and Psychological Well-being of all children and young people
Do you have any limitations on the amount of time your service will support a child or young person? Do you provide any on-going support?
We do not have any time limitations on timeframe, however we are a service that is in great demand so we try to be goal focused working collaboratively with Yp and their families .
Our teams are made up of a range of professionals who are experienced in supporting children and young people.
We deliver our services in the following way:
l Group work
l Individual work
l Joint sessions such as parenting workshops/support
l Advice
l Signposting to the most appropriate services
l Consultation (in person or over the telephone)
Our services work with children and young people to an agreed care plan.
2. Where is it located and what areas does it cover?
Darlington Camhs team covers the local Authority of Darlington only.
There are other camhs teams covering North Durham area based in Durham City
South Durham area based in Newton Aycliffe and Easington Area based in Peterlee.
North Durham – Child and Family Centre, North End House, 42 North End, Durham, DH1 4LW
South Durham – The Acley Centre, Carers Way, Off Burn Lane, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, DL5 4PE
Darlington – Mulberry Centre, Rowan Building, Darlington Memorial Hospital, Hollyhurst Road, Darlington, DL3 6HX
Derwentside – Child and Family Centre, 192 Medomsley Road, Consett, County Durham,
DH8 5HT
Easington – Winchester house South west Industrial estate Peterlee SR8 2RJ
As well as offering appointments at our offices, our teams also work in to community settings if the need is appropriate and agreed with consent of Young person and or parent carer.
l school
l Youth clubs
l GP practices
l Carers centres
l Children’s centres
l homes
3. Who does your service provide for?
What types of need and age ranges do you cover? What are the eligibility criteria to use your service? Are there any types of disabilities that you do not provide for?
We provided a range of services to children and young people up to the age of 18.
Our Targeted Service can be accessed if families / young people have:-
l Mild/moderate anxiety
l Low mood
l Eating difficulties
l Low risk self harming behaviour
l Low level psychosomatic presentation
l Significant changes in presenting behaviours
An assessment will then be made and if appropriate would be referred to Tier 3 CAMHS Service if the following difficulties have been identified:-
l Neuro-developmental disorders including; Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with psychiatric co-morbidity
l Eating disorders including Anorexia and Bulimia(specialist eating disorder team)
l Psychotic illness including both positive and negative symptomsfor initial assessment then to specialist EIP team if over age of 14yrs.
l Anxiety disorders including; panic attacks, separation anxiety and phobias.
l Mood disorders including depression and bipolar disorders
l Obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourettes
l Deliberate self harm
l Attachment disorders only if co morbid mental health issue
l Emerging personality disorders
l Learning disabilities and challenging behaviours
4. How can I start using the service?
All referrals can now be made to one point of access called the single point of access team
Tel 0300 1231296 families and young people can self refer
5. How are decisions made about who can use your service?
Referrals are received by our SPA service and a member of the team will contact the referrer and family to begin the assessment where it is appropriate for our service to be involved or discuss the reason that we are unable to offer a service.
6. How do you communicate with service users and how are they involved in decision making/planning?
What are your usual methods of seeking the views of service users? Do you use any specialist communication system eg signing? What leaflets and information do you have? How does the service communicate with parent carers whose first language is not English? How will I know how well my child or young person is doing? Do you offer any parent training or learning events?
We have a leaflet about our service and other agencies available.
We are able to arrange assistance with communication such as signing, or interpreting services.
We routinely gather information about children, young people and their family’s experience of our service through patient feedback stations or paper copies within our waiting areas. We use routine outcome measures as part of our care to support children, young people, their families and their clinician in understanding how their care is progressing.
7. Is your service fully accessible?
Is the building fully wheelchair accessible? Have there been improvements in the auditory and visual environment? Are there disabled changing and toilet facilities? Do you have a changing places facility? What support is there for a child with additional needs in general areas eg waiting rooms?
How will my child or young person be able to access all of the activities of the service and how will you assist him or her to do so?
Our buildings have waiting rooms and consultation rooms which are wheelchair accessible; there are accessible toilets and baby changing facilities.
8. What training are the staff supporting children and young people with SEND had or are having?
This should include recent and future planned training and disability awareness. Are there any specialist staff? Do any other services work closely with yours?
Our staff have a range of skills to meet the needs of children and young people. We have specialist staff in each team who have had specific training to work with people with Learning Disabilities including Nurses, Consultant Psychiatrists, and Psychologists.
Our teams work closely with many other agencies to support children and young people; these include Schools, Social Care, GP’s, Youth Offending Services, Paediatrics, School Nursing and the Voluntary Sector.
9. Who can I contact for further information?
Who would be my first point of contact if I want to discuss something about my child/young person? Who else has a role in my child’s/young person support? Who can I talk to if I am worried? Who should I contact if I am considering whether child/young person would benefit from the service?
To discuss a potential referral to our service please contact our Targeted Service in your local area:
North Durham 0191 594 5770
South Durham 01325 529 520
Darlington 01325 736352
Derwentside 01207 216 400
Easington 0191 2888400
Once a child or young person is accepted into our service there will be a nominated Lead Professional who would be your point of contact but if they are not available another member of the team would be happy to help.