Transforming CAMHS from the ground up

Matt Kempen
Marketing Manager for ACAMH

Posted on

A report, issued this week, ‘Co-owners of Change: CAMHS Transformation Clinical Champions’, provides insights to an important consultation with clinicians, highlighting the desire for clinical engagement. It was co-developed with Local Transformation Plans to harness expertise and better clinical engagement, meaning improved service quality outcomes for young people.

The project, funded with a £200,000 grant from Health Education England, was delivered during 2016 and early 2017 by a partnership of leading mental health charities; Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), YoungMinds and MindEd.

The project specifically, identified and trained CAMHS Transformation Champions and established Communities of Learning and Practice to support the wider CAMHS transformation agenda. This in turn will lead to improved delivery of services, and outcomes, for the mental health and well-being of children and young people across the UK.

Martin Pratt, CEO, of The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, said; “We are delighted to be able to release the findings of the ‘Co-owners of Change: CAMHS Transformation Clinical Champions’ report. Being able to work together with like-minded organisations that have a common goal to make a difference in the field of children’s mental health is particularly pleasing. The reach of the report has exceeded our expectations and the findings are clear that there is a big appetite for creating networks for sharing good practice within CAMHS both regionally and nationally.”

Sarah Brennan, CEO of YoungMinds said; “The CAMHS Transformation Clinical Champions project is an excellent example of how collaborative working achieves results. The training programme supports clinicians to be Transformation Champions, and the content has been developed collaboratively with clinicians planning alongside young people and parents”

Following this initial stage of consultation, a two-day training course was established, together with follow up workshops, across the country. It identified areas for system leadership and how clinical champions could work effectively to support transformation. These were formed of senior psychiatry and psychology clinicians, and CAMHS managers.

Keith Chambers, MindEd Programme Manager “The final stage of the project was the production of six MindEd learning modules, that can be delivered to all CAMHS staff through training. Nearly 300 attendees have been involved these preliminary scoping workshops and training workshops, with over 130 having already started using the e-learning resources.”

ENDS

Discussion

Can practitioners access this course? I am a principal teacher in an Enhanced Learning Resource and we have a wide range of needs. Thank you. Shauna.

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These e-resources are available on MindEd’s e-learning catalogue. If you go to the MindEd Targeted & Specialist CAMHS section, then ACAMH Transformation, you will find a variety of resources. Additionally, you may find our free CAMHS Topic Guides useful.

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