Held by Vikki Versey (YPHA) & Vanessa Shepherd (Apprentice Commissioner)

CAT Meeting 22/06/2016

CAT (children and young people’s, action and transformation) Report

Introductions
Group name and future meetings
Single point of access
Comments from young people about the CAMHs Service
Recommendations

Introductions:

As this was the first meeting of the young people’s stakeholder group we felt it was best placed to introduce ourselves and our roles to the young people of the group. The young people in the group (3 attended) introduced themselves and why they felt they wanted to be part of the group. Myself and Vanessa explained to the young people that the group was not to be like a school setting, and everything in the room would be kept confidential- and that it was O.K. to be as open and honest as they wished! Confidentiality was explained to all young people.

Group name and future meetings:

After introductions, we asked the young people to identify a group name in order for us to become established. After careful consideration (and pizza!) the young people decided on CAT- Children and Young People, Action and Transformation. This name was agreed as the acronym wouldn’t be stigmatised as easily associated with mental health. The young people in the group have also started to design a logo for the group which can be put on fliers and emails.

Future meetings have also been discussed. It has been decided that:

To meet monthly
To meet in the evenings between 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Central Ipswich is a good location
The age range of the group is to be 13 – 24 years
The group is to be led by young people, for young people
To always have food at the meetings!

Single point of access:

The group decided that they wish to focus on the Single Point of Access in regards to the transformation plan as they believed this was the most relatable element to them.

The young people discussed:

There needs to be enough callers to respond to most calls- not 2 or 3. The callers need to respond seriously to all calls. The number needs to be a Freephone number. The number needs to be short and easy to remember.
The person on the end of the phone needs to be: someone who treats you like a real person; someone who has experienced some sort of mental health service; doesn’t have to be a mental health specialist; staff need to be able to talk to parents if a young person is 18+.
Discussion around creating a basic toolkit for parents and carers to help them deal with their child in crisis. This can include things like helping them keep calm, knowing what to say to their child, moving away from self-blame, and useful verbal responses.

Comments from young people about the CAMHs Service:

These are some of the points of discussion that the young people opened up about when conversing about the CAMHs Service and their experiences:

There is more homework given in half term from CAMHS than what the school has set the young person.
7 bed unit stays (all one gender) are too big. Smaller inpatient units are better- referencing Airey Close, Lowestoft.
Young person felt like a person as GP treated her like a ‘daughter’.
Being sent to units far away (e.g. Nottingham) is unfair on the young person and their family- especially if parents cannot drive (and this particular case, mum had to take autistic brother). Had to get a train that took 3 hours, and the young person was discharged with no safety plan so Suffolk CAMHS had to pick up the ‘pieces’.
If someone gets placed onto a unit which has a lack of space, and is deemed seriously mentally unwell, someone who may be deemed as less mentally unwell is discharged so the new patient has room.
If you are 18, you are discharged from an inpatient unit and CAMHS state that they can no longer support the young person. Then the young person has to wait to be referred into adult services to get access to help, which can take months.
When being discharged from an inpatient unit, young people feel you should be discharged in a planned and communicated way, with a slow transition back home. Young people find they go from being checked medically ¾ times a day, to being discharged with very little support around them.
Eating disorder clinics and inpatient units tend to be more weight focused rather than wellbeing focused. However, one young person (with an eating disorder) was placed in the IDA Darwin inpatient unit (Cambridge) which is a general inpatient unit, but received support from the Phoenix Centre (eating disorder unit, Cambridge) so they felt supported both mentally and physically.
There needs to be more support for families. A young person has been on a waiting list for family therapy for a year and a half.
There needs to be a better community support team, but it is better to have one care coordinator.
Crisis support needs to be stronger, especially for under 14’s as there currently isn’t crisis care for them.
There needs to be a replica of A&E specifically for mental health. A&E doesn’t know how to respond to mental health problems, and young people tend to find the triage process takes around 4 hours. Some young people have been told by professionals that it is ‘just their hormones’, ‘here we go again’, ‘oh I guess you’ve broken up with your partner or whatever’, ‘were you bored?’ etc.
“Don’t be afraid to seek help” is the current mental health message, but when you seek help for crisis care, you have to go to A&E. There needs to be mental health nurses, or professionals trained in mental health manned at A&E 24/7. If you go to A&E when you have overdosed or self-harmed you are meant to see a psychiatrist, by law, but this doesn’t always happen. There is also no privacy in A&E- you have to sit in the main waiting room, and then are put onto a corridor with the curtain open when you are being seen.
“It’s like you have to time your crises”. Mental health crisis care is open 9-5 Monday-Friday. Young people have said that if you have a crisis on a Saturday evening, or during out of hours, you have to wait a long time to be seen.

Recommendations:

Young people would like a bite sized project to work on in relation to Single Point of Access to give them focus within the group itself.
The group would like to know how much influence they have over what they do, and any longstanding work they need to do will make an impact.

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