Please read the updated letter to Parents and Carers for CAMHS response to COVID-19. (found in the 'downloads' box on this page)
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) includes all services who work to promote and restore the emotional well being of children and young people in Southampton City.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Southampton
The role of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) West is to provide a comprehensive specialist mental health service to children and young people aged 5-18 years and who are registered with a Southampton City GP. We are here to help children and young people who are struggling with their emotional and mental health including eating disorders and whose difficulties are having a significant impact on their ability to participate in daily activities or keep themselves safe. For further information please visit the Healthier Together Website
Our team is available 9-5 Monday to Friday. If your call to us isn’t urgent then you are able to leave a message which will be picked up the next working day. If you are calling outside of these hours and needing urgent mental health support then please call 111 or visit NHS 111 to speak to the Mental Health Triage Service. They are available 24hours a day, 7 days a week for anyone living in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
How has the Coronavirus outbreak affected my appointment?
The majority of appointments for initial assessments are being offered as face to face appointments. We are keen to develop strong relationships with young people and their families who require our service and recognise that there is a small risk this is compromised by our first meeting being through a digital platform. Whilst still needing to accommodate the need for large rooms to maintain social distancing and self-isolation as it arises it is not yet possible to offer every assessment as a face to face one. Where it is not possible we will get in touch with you to arrange an alternative way of carrying out the appointment.
All first appointments with a Psychiatrist in our team will be face to face. New appointments with Psychiatrists in our team can be for a number of reasons but the most common reasons are for consideration of the use of medication or more detailed assessment of a young person’s mental health. Both of which reasons are able to be more easily facilitated in a face to face appointment.
Unless there are specific risks follow up appointments and reviews will be face to face and via our digital platform Visionable or telephone. This is to enable the service to make best use of the larger clinical rooms we have available so that appointments which are needing to be conducted via face to face can be done in accordance with the right social distancing measures and also to ensure that we are doing our part within the wider NHS efforts to ensure that face to face contact is minimised.
Can I still contact the service?
Yes, please do – we are keen to hear from you. You can contact us on our direct dial number, 023 8103 0061, or our team email address, SNHS.CAMHSWEST@nhs.net
In addition we continue to work closely with Re:Minds (www.reminds.org.uk) and are available to parents/carers via that support group for pop up sessions related to mental health alongside general question and answer sessions. Please sign up to Re:Minds on their Facebook page to get details of the zoom meetings.
I am on your waiting list. How do I find out how long I have to wait?
We have been working to make contact with each young person and family currently waiting in order to review your needs and ensure that you know how to contact us during this time. What we ask of you to assist us in making the best decisions about our service delivery is that you keep us informed of any urgent changes in your child/young person’s mental health so that we can assess accordingly with you. Such examples may include increasing risk of harm to self or others, a reporting of any unusual symptoms such as reporting being able to hear or see things that others can’t and/or a change in eating habits with food intake being restricted coupled with weight loss and/or excessive exercise. You can contact the team on 023 8103 0061.
Referral criteria
Please see our full referral criteria and referral form for further information.
Contact Information
02381 030061
The Horizon Centre, William Macleod Way
Southampton
SO16 4XE
Opening hours
Mental health Support Teams In Schools
The Mental Health Support Team Programme, funded by NHS England is an exciting new service aiming to develop and deliver a collaborative, system-wide approach to support the mental health of children in the school and college setting. Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) complement existing support provided in schools and colleges by providing a realm of expertise and resources to deliver quicker support and intervention to individuals who may not typically meet the CAMHS thresholds, but would benefit from accessing early support.
Southampton Mental Health Support Team will provide early intervention and prevention work around some mild and mild-moderate mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, as well as helping staff within a school or college setting to provide a ‘whole school approach’ to mental health and wellbeing.
Full address of service
Southampton MHST Team
Adelaide Health Care Centre
William Macleod Way
Southampton
Hampshire
SO16 4XE
Telephone number
0300 123 6661
Email address
Southampton MHST@Solent.nhs.uk
We work with other professionals such as teachers, GP's, health visitors etc. to assess children and young people who have symptoms of a mental health issue.
We don’t necessarily always diagnose with a full mental health illness but if appropriate, we will treat your child/young person with therapies and medication. This will always follow a full assessment by specialist doctors and/or nurses.
Our aim is to enable yourself and your child/young person to better understand and manage the issues that they may be struggling with.
Our joint working relations with other staff enable your child/young person to get care from us whilst remaining in school or college. Where appropriate we offer advice and support for home.
Children and young people use our service for a few months or a few years depending on their needs. There is no upper timescale limit and this will be negotiated with you as the therapy continues. We will then work with your family and GP to discharge you with support to continue with your life.
We work across three large bases in the city:
We provide a service for children and young people up to the age of 18 years.
There is a certain referral criteria that we work to and any health or social care professional will be able to access this.
Please note: Our expertise is with mental health problems and we do not traditionally cater for physical disabilities or severe learning disabilities/difficulties as a primary referral issue. However, occasionally children referred will have this level of need in addition to mental health issues – in these circumstances we will of course care for them and offer advice if we can.
As we are run by Solent NHS Trust, there is no charge for any service we provide to you.
Parents/young people cannot self-refer to the service.
Referrals can be submitted through a letter to the service only, via professionals working with a child or family. These can include
Waiting times vary - we aim to see you for an initial appointment within 4 weeks of referral but this can vary depending on demand for the service.
Treatment courses can take a little longer to start depending on the demand for the service but we keep in touch during this period and offer support if things get worse for your child or young person in the meantime.
Each day (Monday – Friday) Senior Clinicians look at new referrals and make a decision on whether you meet the clinical criteria for support by the service, based on whether or not you have a mental difficulty that is significantly impacting on your daily living and relationships. They may contact the person referring you for further information to enable them to make a decision.
If we feel that you meet the criteria for support by the service you will be allocated a case worker who will then make contact with you or your parent/carer.
If we decide that your child/young person does not meet the criteria for the service we will do our best to refer/signpost you to a service that would meet need more appropriately.
Within 48 hours of your referral the person who has made the referral for you will be notified as to whether or not your child or young person will be offered a service.
We have service user groups and a team of "young inspectors" who work with us to give us feedback and recommendations for service improvement.
If a child is unable or unwilling to communicate directly with us we will communicate through parent/carers. If your child is under 16 we will always discuss our recommendations for treatment with you and only proceed with your consent.
We often run parenting classes and these allow parents to come in to meet staff with the aim of gaining a better understanding of issues affecting their children and to find out more about the work the work that we do.
We have feedback books and clients can write to us to leave feedback.
We have some leaflets for service users. Currently these are only available in English.
We are able to arrange interpreters for people whose first language is not English.
Both buildings have wheelchair access and ground floor rooms for assessments and therapy. There are disabled toilets and baby changing rooms in both bases.
We are always keen to welcome new clients. If you have any special requirements, you can ring our main telephone lines to have a chat with the helpful reception staff who will work through any access issues with you. We will endeavour to do our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.
All staff have had training to understand the needs of SEND and will be able to offer information and advice on best care pathways for you and your family.
It is essential for all staff to be fully aware of the complex needs of children and young people with educational needs and how that fits with the difficulties that they are having in relation to their mental health.
Before commencing employment with us all staff must over go an enhanced Disclosure and Barring (DBS) check.
We are regularly inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – this is the government body set up to inspect health care environments. Our current rating is ‘Good’.
All staff undergo safeguarding training annually.
There are ways of raising a concern or complaining about anything you are unhappy with. This can be explained to you by a member of the team when you visit either service. We take complaints very seriously and will do our best to make the situation better for you.
Complaints can be made directly to the team on the contact numbers above or through our Patient Experience Service.
We operate an ‘on call’ service daily. This can be via either base and is open to anyone with concerns about their child or young person to contact.
The Orchard centre is for 0-14 years and can be contacted on 023 8029 6230
Brookvale for 14-18 years on 023 8058 6154.
BRS 3-18 years 023 8079 9100
For more information you can visit the CAMHS website.