Service is undertaking WLI clinics on Saturdays starting this week to help with some of the backlog of initial appointments.
Additional hours via a Waiting List Initiative will support this recovery method with appointments for children and young people currently on the ND waiting list. The timescale of this recovery plan is scheduled from June until August 2021.
Additional Easting Disorder clinics are being arranged to start mid June and run for 6 – 8 weeks to provide brief intervention to those identified as being most suitable. These will run on Saturdays and provide joint dietetic and therapy sessions with the aim of increasing the confidence of the families in managing the changed eating behaviours.
CAMHS continues to offer a service to children and young people. We are fortunate to be able to continue to meet with our young people and families face to face, however, this must be governed by clinical need with the use of remote platforms of communication, assessment and intervention being fully utilised where appropriate.
Single Point of Access for Neuro-developmental (ND) Referrals
A single point of access mailbox for ND referrals has been developed aligning ND with SPACE Wellbeing processes. From 1st April 2021 professionals are required to email ND Referrals to:
ABB.SPACEWellbeingND@wales.nhs.uk
Referrals will be triaged and ensure seamless forwarding to SPACE / (Early Help) Wellbeing, ISCAN Community Embedded team and ND assessment as appropriate. This system should provide less confusion as to which service to refer to or the need to make multiple referrals for children with co morbid presentations and professionals will have better access and communication with partner agencies to work jointly to support families.
Whilst a proportion of our appointments occur as either an Attend Anywhere virtual appointment or a telephone consultation, we have continued to offer a large number of face to face appointments in those cases where there is clinical need.
Clinicians have continued to undertake a number of telephone appointments offering a range of options to patients for clinical work. Our operating procedure is in place with rooms set up to support social distancing for staff and families and we are continuing to use PPE.
CAMHS are continuing to offer a range of remote and face to face appointments , and those young people and families in greatest need will continue to receive a good service. This will continue throughout the lockdown . We are of course adhering to all of the guidance regarding COVID-19, in order to keep families, young people and staff as safe as possible throughout this period and beyond.
We are still receiving higher than normal numbers of referrals for young people experiencing difficulties, and are looking at trends and data in order to continue to ensure that we are meeting the needs of young people. We continue to offer appointments and intervention using a range of approaches and platforms, including face to face when clinically indicated. Our young people and families are given choices regarding how they can access help - this can be via telephone , virtual platforms or face to face meetings. We would like to reassure families and young people who are struggling that we are here for them, and that all our interventions are carried out according to COVID guidelines.
Virtual group work has started and we are actively looking at increasing access to this safely in order to increase the therapeutic choices for young people. For example, alongside DBT groups, we are organising Family Therapy Clinics remotely and carrying out other systemic, family orientated group work.
With the recent COVID-19 localised lockdowns and following an increase in the number of referrals coming into the service, we have begun to re-visit discussions and planning on the provision of virtual therapeutic group work.