Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
Page Updated:30th November 2021
1. What does your service do?
We help children and young people, their families and carers when someone is experiencing emotional well-being or mental health difficulties. We provide services across locations, such as GP surgeries, clinics, hospitals and schools, to support young people with learning disabilities and those experiencing mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and psychosis.
2. Where is it located and what areas does it cover?
Our services are spread across Sussex, at a number of different locations. Further in depth detail of services and their locations can be found at our website.
3. Who does your service provide for?
Our service requirements and criteria’s vary. A much further in depth description of each service, age ranges and criteria is listed on our website.
4. How can I start using the service?
Access to each service varies. More information can be found on our website.
Some services can be accessed through self-referral. Some require a referral from a GP/medical professional. Waiting lists vary between services, and we would be able to advise what the current waiting time is at the time of referral.
5. How are decisions made about who can use your service?
As a trust we want to see young people receiving the best possible treatment for them. If we are not the right organisation to provide that service, then we will advise of other services from partnering organisation and agencies that would be better suited to the needs of the young person.
6. How do you communicate with service users and how are they involved in decision making/planning?
We are proud to provide services for every member of our diverse local population. The people we care for, and their families, have the right to effective and understandable communication, in a form that they can access. We have selected Sussex Interpreting Services to provide interpreting and translation services and Action Deafness to deliver British Sign Language interpreting for the Trust. More information is available here
7. Is your service fully accessible?
We recommend that users of our service refer to our website for further details of accessibility for a specific service location. If these details are not listed on the website, we recommend that they contact the location by telephone for further details from reception.
8. Who can I contact for further information?
We recommend people go the GP if they are unsure whether they should be referring their child to our services. They can then advise on what the best course of action would be and then if appropriate, make a referral directly to us. More information is available here
CAMHS Winter Service Report.
A short report conducted in the winter of 2019 by the Sussex Partnership which judges the CAMHS service against five key priorities: participation, awareness, accessibility accountability and evidence-based practice. The report also contains information of how NHS England plans to transform CAMHS services in Sussex. Read report.
View our service on the Local Offer here
