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Referral to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)

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What is camhs?

CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. CAMHS are the NHS services that assess and treat young people with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. 

The CAMHS support mainly focus on depression and anxiety, but may look at underlying health conditions to support problems with food, self-harm, abuse, violence or anger, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia to name but a few. Regarding abuse, there may be more specialist services who can help and CAMHS will direct you towards these. 

There are local NHS CAMHS services around the UK, with teams made up of nurses, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, support workers and social workers, as well as other professionals.

To find your nearest CAMHS service click here

How do i get help from CAMHS?

Your GP can refer you for an assessment to CAMHS to see what help you can get. You should also check your local CAMHS service as they may have other options for you to make a referral. 

If you're being supported by social care, a youth offending team, or a service at your school, they might also be able to refer you.

It's important to tell the person referring you as much as you can so that you can get the help you need.

These are your local CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) services if you are looking for help:

BeeU - A partnership of different services offering support and advice to children, young people, and families, in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. This partnership is made up of Healios, Kooth and CAMHS.

  • Healios - A leading digital provider of mental health, autism, and ADHD services for children and young people aged 25 and under.
  • Kooth - Provides an anonymous 24-hour online service, 365 days per year, offering peer support, self-help and trained and qualified counsellors available to talk to online.

Does CAMHS help parents and carers too?

Most CAMHS services work with the whole family to support a young person's health.

This might include coming along to assessment and treatment appointments, depending on the child's age and what level of involvement they want.

How do young people move from CAMHS to adult services?

Young people will need to move from CAMHS to adult mental health services when they reach a certain age. When it happens depends on where you live, but you should be told at least 6 months in advance.

Transition to adult services is a big change, so it's important to get as much information and support as you can from friends and family. Your CAMHS case worker or care coordinator should create a care plan for you and arrange your transition.

You'll have an assessment with both CAMHS and adult services present to decide what kind of help you can get from the NHS. It's possible that you won't be eligible for the level of care adult services provide, but either way you'll develop a plan for what happens next.

Make sure you also ask about non-NHS support like local youth counselling, charities or school programmes.

There are many sensory issues associated with sleep including:

  • Sensitivity to sound, touch, and visual stimuli which can be distracting and distressing and can affect the process of falling asleep.
  • Interoception difficulties, particularly recognising when hungry, full or thirsty or when the person is tired. 
  • Some children are more sensitive to foods like sugar, caffeine and additives which keep people awake.

Look at the bedroom environment to see what may be affecting their ability to go to sleep and stay asleep. Do their pyjamas and bedclothes feel comfortable, are they too hot or cold?  Is it too light or too dark, too noisy or too quiet? Perhaps it is too cluttered and stimulating. Think about your child’s diet. Are they eating too early or not having enough to eat? Are they eating food that can stimulate them close to bedtime. There can be added difficulties where children have restrictive diets but some simple adjustments of what is eaten and when can make a big difference. 

Click here for more information on sensory issues.
 

Sticking to the same routine helps your child to know what to expect at bedtime and helps them feel secure. It also helps to support your child’s internal body clock and keep it on track. The age related sleep advice and information on this website can help with establishing routines. Some children will benefit from using picture timetables, timers or social stories to help them understand their bed-time routine. More information about visual supports can be found on these websites

Visual Resources | Autism West Midlands 
Visual Supports | Autism Toolbox Autism Toolbox

Your child may be feeling overstimulated after a busy day and needs help to wind down, or their environment may be overstimulating with lots of toys, TVs and computers within reach. Avoiding TV and computers or hand-held devices an hour before bedtime can help your child to wind down. Activities that are good for the wind down period are jigsaws and colouring. Having a relaxing bath and milky drink can help some children, but for some children having a bath can over-excite them so they may need to have their bath earlier in the day.

Children who wake to use the toilet, wet the bed, or who wear nappies or pull-ups at night that need changing may have disturbed sleep. Eric, the children’s bowel and bladder charity are a good source of advice on this topic.

 

What might help 

Keeping a sleep diary 

A sleep diary can help you understand what may be causing difficulties with sleep. Fill it out every evening and record as much as you can. You can use it to spot patterns and make changes that may help. 

The Sleep Charity have templates you can download; one for teenagers and one for younger children. 

Seeking advice and help from sleep services 

There are organisations that can help you if you are having difficulties with your child’s sleep. There are many national organisations, including those who specialise in sleep for SEND families, and there are also community-based services in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. Click the link at the bottom of page to visit our support services page. 

Understanding sleep cycles 

The circadian sleep cycle is a 24-hour cycle that helps govern essential bodily functions especially the sleep-wake cycle. It plays a vital role in a person’s ability to sleep in one consolidated block of time at night and to stay awake during the day. As the sun sets in the evening, the brain begins producing melatonin, a hormone that induces sleepiness. Core body temperature also drops.

As melatonin and tryptophan (an amino acid which helps produce melatonin) are naturally produced in the body, there are things you can do to help their production.  Darkness helps to promote the production of melatonin which is why it is a good idea to put your child to sleep in a darkened room, and light emitting devices such as tablets and phones also can destroy Melatonin so should not be used for at least an hour before bed. New research shows that limiting exposure to screens and increasing physical activity levels during the day has a positive effect on children's overall physical, mental health and wellbeing, including sleep.

Setting a waking time consistently even in holiday times, called ‘anchoring’ the wake time, can help to reset the body clock over time. This should be accompanied with exposure to lots of light on waking to support circadian rhythm. 

Melatonin and tryptophan occur naturally in some foods and drinks such as milky drinks and cereals which is why having a milky drink before bed can help settling to sleep. For more information visit Diet & Sleep - The Sleep Charity

Prescriptions of melatonin

Behavioural strategies and practical solutions are the best way to address sleep difficulties, but if they are having a significant impact on your child’s ability to function, a drug form of melatonin is sometimes prescribed for neurodivergent children. As the drug’s function is to re-set sleep and wake cycles, it works best combined with good sleep hygiene practices. It is important that is it taken under medical supervision and not purchased on-line so that it is closely monitored for dosage and side effects. It should be prescribed for the shortest period necessary as the long-term effects of the drug on children’s development are not yet known. 
In Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin the Community Paediatric Service and the BeeU Service (CAMHS) can prescribe Melatonin for children and young people who meet ALL of the following criteria.

  1. the child/young person must be open to and being treated by the service due to a neurodevelopmental/mental health need (diagnosis not required)
  2. sleep issues are causing significant impact on the child/ young person, for example due to daytime sleeping or behavioural problems that are impacting daily functioning or educational attendance
  3. behavioural approaches have been tried and failed. These may have been offered by the service (where available) or by community sleep support services.

GPs are unable to prescribe Melatonin although they sometimes issue repeat prescriptions when prescribing has been started by a specialist (such as a paediatrician or child psychiatrist). 

Further support 

Click on the link below to visit a page with information about

  • national websites and sleep organisations
  • local community services in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.