CAHMS referral

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Hi

Can someone please explain what happens with this? What's the process? I know the waiting list is a very very long time,

My DD was referred to CAMHs on Tuesday afternoon and today i had a missed call and a voicemail from someone at CAHMs. I'll be ringing them back on Monday morning.

Is it normal to have a phone call so soon? I assumed I wouldnt hear from them for maybe a year or somthing?

What was the referral for specifically?

It depends on what's in the referral. Also depends if your area has a Single Point of Access into Child and young people's mental health services.

My guess is the referral has been received and it will be a screening call with you to find out a bit more to process the referral further.

For self harming and threatening to kill herself. She has counselling at school ( has been doing for a few months ) and the counsellor said she needed to be referred to CAHMS so I rang the Gp on Tuesday

depends if your area has a Single Point of Access into Child and young people's mental health services would this be her counselling?

Thank you for the replies

My dd had a CBT appointment in 2 weeks. I was gobsmacked!

It depends on the area but referrals are usually triaged as routine, urgent and same day. It's likely this referral has been sent as urgent so you will likely have an assessment appointment; this usually is an in depth appointment looking at history/development etc. from then they'll either allocate a care coordinator, signpost or put you on waiting list! (That's how it used to work when I worked for CAMHS!). But with threats of suicide, you should be at least assessed quite quickly.

The triage process should happen in the first few days after referral (clinicians working out if child meets criteria and how urgently they need to be seen). The call you missed may be someone calling for further info or to discuss their decision. Also to talk about risk management. The next stage is usually a full assessment. Waiting times for this can vary depending on demand and the child. This will help determine the child’s need and best pathway. Then there may be a wait for “treatment” to begin with an allocated clinician. The waits are very frustrating and sad but a natural consequence of understaffed teams.

DD was triaged by phone soon after referral.
Then added to waiting list.
We got private help.
2.5 years later we removed her from waiting list as she turned 18.