Type of service: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Diagnostic services

Website: http://www.sabp.nhs.uk/services/young-persons/south-east-child-and-young-persons-mental-health-services/epsom-ewell-and-banstead-child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services/

The CAMHS Community Teams are integrated health and social care teams that provide assessment and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are presenting with a mental health disorder.

They focus on assessing and treating children and young people presenting with moderate to severe and complex concerns and have a significant impact on the child's development and cause distress to the child and/or their carers.

CAMHS service users must be under the age of 18 and registered with a GP based in Surrey. The service focuses on behaviours indicative of moderate to severe mental health and development needs which are causing functioning to deteriorate and problems to escalate. These may be having a significant impact on the child or young person's development quality of life, and / or is causing distress to the child and / or carers. Presenting conditions may include the following:

Anxiety disorders
Attachment disorders
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Depressive disorders
Conduct disorders (diagnostic assessment, identification and treatment of co-morbid disorders as appropriate)
Deliberate self harm
Developmental disorders
Eating disorders
Hyperkinetic disorders
Obsessive Compulsive disorder
Post traumatic syndromes Psychotic disorders
Severe behavioural problems
Somatic syndromes
Referrals are accepted from professionals in health services, children's Services, or education Departments, or the voluntary sector, who have been involved with the care of the young person and have obtained valid consent.

Referrals are not accepted directly from families or young people.

Assessment procedure: Seen for initial assessment by one person from the multi-disciplinary team, referred for diagnosis to child psychiatrist or to clinical psychologist to map areas of difficulty and advise on strategies/resources as appropriate.

Follow up service: Follow up meetings with parents to develop coping strategies.

Multi-disciplinary assessment: Yes: clinical psychologist; psychiatry.

Aimed at: Adolescent , Child

Gender: All genders

Referral Sources: NHS Only

Other specialisms: Challenging behaviour, Learning disability, Pre-school children; children with learning disabilities. Does give an indication of where the client fall on the spectrum.

Approaches and tools used: Australian Scale for Asperger Syndrome, CARS, CHAT