Lanarkshire’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), in line with health and care services across the country, continues to experience unprecedented levels of pressure.
These pressures are largely the result of a large rise in the number of people requiring urgent unscheduled care which is impacting on planned care and leading to increased waiting times.
However, those with the most clinical need, high risk and urgent cases continue to be seen as a priority and don’t go on a waiting list.
This relates to young people with life threatening presentations of suicidality, significant deliberate self-harm, eating disorders and acute psychiatric presentations.
New referrals are reviewed each day and allocated to clinicians or waiting list according to clinical need. Families may be directed towards other appropriate community health and social care supports.
The service is also operating a waiting list clinic at weekends to offer additional flexibility for families waiting to be seen. This clinic has been designed to provide support including assessing service users’ level of priority and signposting to other services where appropriate.
Emer Shepherd, general manager, Specialist Children’s Health Services, Health & Social Care North Lanarkshire, said: “We have seen a sustained increase in the number of people accessing the service, particularly those requiring urgent care.
“The complex nature of CAMHS means a range of significant and immediate pressures must be balanced to ensure we respond to demand, but also remobilise the service in such a way that it meets the needs of our young people going forward.
“We are tackling these pressures head on while also redesigning the service so that we can quickly and flexibly meet the needs of the young people we see and empower them to lead a healthy life in their communities.
“The recovery process, by necessity, is a gradual process for many services and this includes CAMHS. It’s important that people are aware of this and why it will take time to return to normal as we adapt to the disruption caused by Covid-19.
“The pandemic is still with us, and, to move to a more ‘business as usual’ approach, we are taking a longer term view and firmly grasping this opportunity to further improve services for young people in Lanarkshire.
“Many of the initiatives and transformations which are being developed and embedded now will play a key role in helping us shape the CAMHS service going forward. This approach is vital to ensure we deliver the services the young people of Lanarkshire need while providing extra clarity for partners and stakeholders.
“On the whole, service users and their families/carers have been very supportive of our staff and the way we are currently delivering services and that is greatly appreciated by staff.
“Throughout the pandemic, CAMHS staff have been exceptional. The wider healthcare system is under a great deal of pressure just now, however our teams are working incredibly hard to continue delivering a high standard of safe and effective care.
“I have nothing but admiration for the way our staff has shown outstanding commitment, resilience and bravery throughout the pandemic. They have had to very quickly totally change the ways they work while also ensuring service users have been safe and their needs met.
“Their dedication to provide safe services for the young people of Lanarkshire has been wonderful.
“While it will take time, we are continuing to make good progress with this work. It’s important that people realise that while services may have changed due to the pandemic, staff have still been working incredibly hard, often in ways that are very different for them.
“As a service, we are determined to emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever.”
