We’re a specialist service, so children and young people may be seen by other services first. This could be social workers or doctors. If we think that CAMHS is the right place to help a child, the first step is an assessment appointment.
At the assessment appointment, we meet children and their parents or carers to get to know a bit about them and what’s worrying them, so that we can decide whether they can benefit from our help.
First appointments usually involve both the young person and parents or carers, but some teenagers may want to be seen alone. In this case, we would offer a separate appointment for parents to discuss their concerns.