CAMHS

Specialist community child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) provide assessment, advice and treatment for children and young people with severe and complex mental health problems. CAMHS also provide support and advice to their families or carers.

Services are usually multi-disciplinary teams of mental health professionals providing a range of interventions in the community, working with schools, social care, charities, voluntary and community groups.

Cornwall CAMHS take referrals from any source, including parents or self-referrals. There is a referral form that is sent to a central multi-agency Hub based in County Hall in Truro. Each referral is carefully screened by a CAMHS clinician that is referenced to our Eligibility Criteria found below. This document lists the specific mental health disorders we treat with the thresholds clearly defined. The threshold is based the Child Global Assessment Scale (CGAS). This is a rating of functioning based on a clinician’s assessment of a range of aspects related to a child’s psychological and social functioning. The CGAS scale is available as a guide for referrers.

A child or young person with a moderate to severe learning disability can often present with complex behaviours which may, or may not be symptomatic of a mental health condition. These referrals will not automatically access a mental health assessment within the specialist CAMHS service. They will be given to the specialist CAMHS LD part of the service and offered an appropriate response that acknowledges and understands this complexity.

Children and young people with autism spectrum disorder will only be offered a mental health assessment within CAMHS when there are indications of a mental health condition which go beyond the core features of the primary diagnosis of autism.
A referral that doesn’t meet the threshold for a specialist intervention but the child has a moderate level of impairment can be allocated to the Primary Mental Health Team. These workers are specialists in early interventions in mental health and will offer consultation and advice. They have some limited capacity to offer some solution focussed interventions.

Referrals not suitable for CAMHS are offered alternative resources through our partner agencies via the Hub.

CAMHS Opening Hours

CAMHS offices are open: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday

Download

CAMHS Eligibility Criteria

Primary Mental Health Workers – A guide for professionals leaflet

Primary Mental Health Workers – A guide for children, young people and families leaflet

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Leaflet – A guide for children, young people and parents

Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team Leaflet

Resources

MindEd is a free educational resource on children and young people’s mental health for all adults.

Young Minds is a charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.

Childline is a counselling service for children and young people.

Survey

Children’s Services User Survey
Children’s Services Parents Survey

Media

What is CAMHS

Breakthrough HD