We are a team of professionals who support children, young people, and families with their mental health. We work in the community, with schools, social services, charities, and other support groups.
Our team includes:
We also have trainees who are learning to become mental health professionals.
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We offer treatments and support based on the best available evidence and follow national guidelines. We work closely with you and your family to understand what's going on and how we can help.
We want your care to be personal to you. We try to offer:
Good mental health is connected to many things, like:
We also know that spending time in nature can help mental health. That's why we offer opportunities to meet outside or bring nature into our sessions.
We take your privacy seriously. What you tell us is kept private. If we are worried about your safety or someone else's, we may need to share this information with others to help keep you safe. We will always try to discuss this with you first.
We are here to listen, understand, and support you in a safe and welcoming environment. We respect everyone's differences and aim to make sure you feel comfortable.
You can self-refer, or be referred by your:
We look at every referral and work with the person who referred you to find the best support for you right now.
We always aim to give great advice and signposting to the best options for help and support in Cornwall.
If you are likely to need a CAMHS care plan we will invite you to an options meeting. This is a meeting where we can talk together with you and your family about the best options for treatment and support. In this meeting we will work out what your goals are and make a plan.
Covers Heathlands, Caradon and Launceston and the north east.
Covers Shaw House, St Austell (Restormel) and Truro Health Park (Carrick).
Covers Bolitho House, Penzance (Penwith) and The Hive, Kernow Building, and Redruth (Kerrier).
If you are working with a child or young person and wish to seek advice or share information, contact the relevant locality team to share information with our administrative colleagues. This can be done via email or telephone.
You can also request to speak to the team duty clinician if you wish to discuss worsening clinical or risk concerns.
If you are not sure which locality team you need to contact, call any of the teams and we will be able to signpost you correctly.
Should your child or young person's mental health or risk worsen whilst waiting for a new patient assessment, contact the team to share this information. If you are not sure which locality team you need to contact, call any of the teams and they will be able to signpost you correctly.
If following assessment your child or young person is accepted for treatment, they will be placed on a further waiting list for allocation. Allocation means your child or young person will be assigned a lead health care professional. This person is important in co-ordinating their care received from our service.
When placed on the allocation waiting list, children, young people, and parent or carers will receive a monthly welfare call to check in as to any changes in need or risk. This will be provided monthly until your child or young person is allocated in the team.
Due to demand for our services, we encourage you to inform of us of any appointments you may need to cancel or rearrange as we follow a ‘was not brought’ policy. This policy means we have a limit of missed appointments we can accept before considering discharge from the service. This is to ensure all children and young people waiting are safeguarded and allows other people waiting for support to access help in a timely way.
CAMHS is not a crisis service. Professionals can provide a maximum number of appointments at any given time due to supporting many children and young people. This means that if your child or young person is open to the team and requires more intensive support, a support request can be made to our Multi-agency Rapid Response Service for enhanced risk support if deemed clinically appropriate.
We cannot provide information to the education sector to support non-attendance to school or college. We can only share information on the needs of a child or young person and how this may impact them when at their educational placement. Support around education attendance or additional special or educational needs will need to be discussed with the school or college themselves. This can be done through the school or college’s special education needs lead.
We understand that coming to meet unfamiliar people and sharing personal information can feel an overwhelming or worrying experience. Your first experience of meeting our team will be at your new patient assessment. This assessment will take up 90 minutes and hopes to explore a range of topics so that we can better understand you.
We will ask you questions about:
We offer you time to be seen alone in the assessment if that would be helpful for you. We encourage you to think about some of these topics, your strengths, and challenges ahead of the appointment.
You are welcome to write notes down and bring this with you. This might be helpful in making sure you share as much information with us as you can to help your assessment outcome.
We are here to learn what your needs are and how we can best support you. This might mean that other services might be more helpful for you based on your what you would like support with.
Attending CAMHS is not something you have to do. It is your choice to work with us as your care will be led by you. If you do not feel ready to work with us, or if you decide you would like to stop attending once you have started, we will respect your decision.
All information you share with us in your appointments will be kept confidential between yourself and the team. If you share any information with a professional that suggests you may have been or are currently at risk of harm from others or to others, we have a duty of care to share this with the relevant services. If we need to do this, we will be open with you as to why we are doing this and who we are sharing this information with.
The NHS Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use NHS services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience. Share your experience.
If you would like to help us celebrate good practice in our service, you can also submit a WOW Award nomination for a member of staff or team. We would value any positive feedback you would be happy to share.
If you feel dissatisfied with the service we are providing, you are welcome to submit a complaint via our Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
