Signposting - Health & wellbeing - Mental health - My CAMHS Choices – a new website for young people

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Section: Signposting

Subsection: Signposting - Health & wellbeing - Mental health

My CAMHS Choices – new website for young people

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This new website has been created by young people for young people, to act as a support and provide information on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).


The website features video interviews with real clinicians and young people which young people might like to look at with a friend, trusted adult, or their CAMHS worker.

Background to the My CAMHS Choices Project

YoungMinds, Off the Record (Bristol) and the Evidence Based Practice Unit at the Anna Freud Centre collaborated on the three year My CAMHS Choices project, which was funded by the Department of Health. The project ran for three years in total, starting in March 2011 and finishing in March 2014. It was steered and developed by young people with experience of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). They believed that finding out as much as possible about their treatment options was a really important and helpful step in enabling them to engage with the service and their worker, as it made them feel as though it was something they were involved in rather than something that was happening to them.

Because of this, the group decided to create the My CAMHS Choices website, featuring videos answering key questions about CAMHS.

Aims

The aims of the website are to:

  • Provide those accessing CAMHS with the necessary information required to make meaningful choices about their care.
  • Answer FAQs in order to allay some of the anxiety and worry associated with having any involvement with mental health services.
  • Include the perspectives of both young people who have had first-hand experience of CAMHS and the professionals who work there.
  • Give a balanced view, considering both the positive and perceived negative aspects of CAMHS.


The video footage on the website has been led by the young people involved in the project. They hope the videos will allow children and young people to exercise their right to choice and control over their mental health care.

[Click here] to take a look at the My CAMHS Choices website.