Participation in developing youth mental health services: “Cinderella service” to service re-design

Journal of Public Mental Health,Volume 16, Issue 4, Page 159-168, December 2017. Purpose Whilst there are pockets of excellence in the provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), many services fail to meet young people ’s needs. Considering this, the purpose of this paper is to ascertain perceptions of CAMHS provision in a rural county of the UK to inform re-design of youth mental health services. Design/methodology/approach The study comprised of two phases: phase one involved analysis of questionnaire data o f youth views of CAMHS. Phase two involved analysis of the “Have Your Say” event data which explored perceptions of CAMHS and future service re-design. Data were thematically analysed. Findings Knowledge of the existence and purpose of CAMHS was variable. Participants wanted accessible informa tion about services, rights, confidentiality and for this to be provided in multiple media. Young people wanted staff who were easy to talk to, genuine, understanding and who valued their insights. Participants wanted to be offered choice about appointments, location and timing. An ideal mental heal th service was described as a “one-stop-shop” of co-locality and multi-agency collaboration. Young people clearly expressed a desire to influence the design and delivery of the radical service re-design and to be embedded in its development. Practical implications The results highlighted multi ple problems with CAMHS provision and provided a clear ju...
Source: Journal of Public Mental Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research