West Berkshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service - CAMHS

CAMHS - the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service - is a service that is made up of 3 different teams of people who work in health, education and social services. We all work with children and young people who are experiencing emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties and their families.

Who are we?

The CAMH Service involves various professionals who are trained as occupational therapists, child and family counsellors, specialist nurses, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, family support workers and psychotherapists.

You may meet only one person from the team or you may meet several people.

How do I get referred to CAMHS?

You can be referred to CAMHS by your GP, health visitor, school nurse, school, BEST or social worker. They will complete a referral form detailing their and/or your concerns. The referral must be accompanied by the child/young person’s parent or guardian’s consent.

What will happen?

We will look at ways in which we can help you and if appropriate, you may get a letter offering you an appointment to meet with one or more members of the Team to discuss your situation. There will be an opportunity for individual and/or family discussion. The aim of this meeting is to discuss what support or treatment may help you best.

Some of the situations we may be able to help you with are:

• Difficulties in family relationships

• Problems controlling anger

• Difficulties with obsessions and compulsion

• Eating and sleeping difficulties

• Feeling very sad or depressed a lot of the time

• Feeling scared or worried and anxious a lot of the time

• Positively managing children’s challenging behaviour

• Attention and hyperactivity difficulties

• Problems with social skills and communication

• Self-harming, suicidal ideas and substance misuse

• Mental health issues

What do we offer?

• Consultation - to professionals or parents

• Diagnostic assessments - to help work out what the difficulty actually is

• Group work - for young people or parents

• Family work

• Individual work

Comments about the service

We are always looking for ways to improve our service. If you have any positive comments, suggestions or complaints, please let us know, either face to face or on a feedback form.

If you have a complaint, it is best to speak to the person that you saw first or their manager.

There is a complaints procedure available from Christine Joyce at the address below.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Does mental health mean madness?  

No.  Mental Health means being able to cope positively with the stresses of life.

Our service helps with the illnesses and difficulties that get in the way of this.

Q.  There are social workers in the Team, does this mean that my child will be taken into care?

NO. We work with a family to try and make things better and support the young person and/or the family.

Q. Will everyone know what I have said?

Everyone working for the CAMHS service has a legal duty to keep information on you confidential. The exception to this is when we consider the health or safety of a child or young person to be in danger, then we have a duty to pass this on.

Contact us

More information is provided in the attachements below.