Referrals are screened, to make sure they are suitable and to identify urgent referrals. When a referral is accepted the family or young person will be invited to an appointment. Other professionals may also be invited to this appointment.

The CAMHS clinicians will ask about the difficulties and give children, young people and families/carers an opportunity to say what has been happening and what help they want. At the end of the discussion the CAMHS clinician will identify options to take forward. This may mean attending further appointments at CAMHS, or a referral to another service better suited to the circumstances. Sometimes a one-off meeting is all that is needed.

If during the CAMHS assessment it is agreed that our service is the most appropriate to help the young person with their mental health, both practitioner and service user will think together towards creating care plan and further sessions will be arranged.

All the information given in CAMHS appointments is confidential. Usually only the person who made the referral and the GP will know about the appointments. It can be helpful to share information, for example with schools or other health staff. The CAMHS clinician will discuss the information to be shared and ask children, young people and their families/carers for consent to share. Sometimes young people do not want to share their information with their parents/carers. This can be identified in the referral. The CAMHS clinician will discuss this with the young person to understand more about their circumstances and assess whether they are competent to make that decision for themselves. If there are concerns that a child or young person may be at risk of harm, CAMHS will always share this information with the relevant agencies, though we would hope to inform the child or young person and their family/carers about the referral and the reasons for this.