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CAMHS

Posted By tryingtobeamum

"CAMHS"

About: Community Mental Health Services / CAMHS (Child & Adolescent MH service) Stirling

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter has been under CAMHS for an ASD assessment for more than a year. When COVID-19 hit I completely understood that services had to be suspended, especially in cases like ours where there was no emergency.

During lockdown I have made several phonecalls to try and get a realistic time frame for appointments starting up again. To be clear, I am not asking for appointment to made faster, or be put before anyone else's, only to have an idea of when appointments can start again. Or to understand what needs to be in place, or happen before they can start. But all I can get is "we don't know".

My child could now access a dentist, where people would be looking directly in her mouth, but I can't even be told when she can sit in a room with one or two health professionals for an appointment/assessment that only involves talking.

I am beyond frustrated

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Responses

Response from NHS Forth Valley 4 years ago
NHS Forth Valley

Submitted on 27/07/2020 at 08:57
Published on Care Opinion at 08:57

Dear tryingtobeamum,

I am sorry to hear you about your difficulty in getting information about when your daughter can be seen again. Throughout COVID-19 CAMHS worked hard to support children and young people in need of mental health and support.

All children known to the Service were risk assessed and consideration was given to the method we could see them and indeed continue to see them. This included the option of seeing children face to face, adhering to appropriate health and safety guidance, offering secure digital appointments (Near Me) and telephone consultations. At the current time we are adapting our physical environments to comply with Health and Safety considerations raised by COVID-19. Due to changes in the way we use waiting areas and room space the capacity to see patients face to face across the NHS has changed. An example is that CAMHS share a waiting area with Paediatrics, Audiology and Allied Health colleagues and we now require to coordinate to ensure our waiting areas do not get overwhelmed and unsafe. CAMHS has continued to see young people face to face where a clinical need has been identified which for those young people experiencing significant mental health issues can include patient choice aimed to support access to appropriate treatment.

If you wish for your daughter to be seen face to face you can contact your daughter's case holder to discuss this and arrange-please be advised that both you, your daughter and the clinician will require to wear face masks. I am sorry for the frustration caused and if you wish to discuss these issues with us I would be happy to speak with you, my name is Scott Allan Lead Nurse for CAMHS and I can be contacted on 01786454546."

If you have any queries I am in the office most of the day.

Regards

Scott

Lead Nurse

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

NHS Forth Valley

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