The Camden Complex CAMHS Service

Camden Complex CAMHS Service

There are 4 teams which sit in The Camden Complex CAMHS Service -  the Whole Family Team, The Whole Family Team with Perinatal Specialism, The Children Looked After CAMHS team which also works with the Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers and the CAMHS Early Intervention Service.  All of these teams are integrated within local authority or adult mental health settings. The teams specialise in working with cases where there may already be several professionals involved and with families who may also struggle to access community services. The teams offer a large amount of consultation and risk support (under the thrive model) to other professionals working with children, young people and their families as well as using an assertive outreach treatment model to engage the more hard to reach population.

The teams work within the Thrive Framework under these guiding principles offering,

• Rapid Access to services
• No bouncing of referrals between services
• Care pathways as directed by need and not solely diagnosis

The Clinical Service Manager for the Camden Complex CAMHS Service is Patricia Pemberton ppemberton@tavi-port.nhs.uk. Each team has their own team manager and there is an administrative team which supports the service.

The teams which should appear are:

The Whole Family Team (WFT)

The WFT is a specialist CAMHS service in the London Borough of Camden which is integrated within children and young people’s services. The WFT specialises in working with families facing complex difficulties, who may be working with several professionals and may struggle to access community services. The team provides specialist interventions for families where there are issues related to complex trauma and attachment. In addition to offering direct intervention, the WFT offers a large amount of consultation and risk support (under the thrive model) to other professionals working with children, young people and their families.  The Whole Family Team is co-located across a range of Camden Local Authority Services, including, Social Services, Camden’s Pupil Referral Units, The Youth Offending Service, Early Help and Camden Children Centre Services.

The Whole Family Team with Perinatal Specialism (WFT-P)

The WFT-P is a highly specialist service offering psychological therapy to families during pregnancy and with babies, toddlers and children up to the age of 5 years. The team comprises of Clinical Psychology, Child and Educational Psychology, Systemic Family Psychotherapy, Child Psychotherapy and Psychiatry. The team is set up to work with families who might fall through the gaps in other services and/or have a complex relationship to help. The WFT-P specialises in working with families facing complex difficulties, who may be working with several professionals and may struggle to access community services. We provide specialist interventions for families where there are issues related to complex trauma and attachment. In addition to offering direct interventions, the team offers a large amount of consultation and risk support (under the thrive model) to other professionals working with children, young people and their families. The WFT-P is co-located within Camden Children Centre Services and is designed to work closely with other early years professionals including, Family Support, Social Work and Health Visiting.  

The Children Looked After and Refugee CAMHS Team

The Children Looked After and Asylum Seekers Team is a specialist multi-disciplinary team which offers psychological support to Children Looked After by Camden and their carers as well as children who are placed in Camden by other local authorities. The children and young people seen have often suffered from trauma due to the care they have received, and their ongoing care needs. They often struggle to engage with services and as a result may have fallen through the gaps as well as having complex relationships and difficulties.  As well as offering direct interventions to young people the team also offers support/advice to carers who are struggling in an attempt to avoid placement breakdown, as well as consultation and risk support to other professionals working with children and young people. The team is co-located with social workers from the Local Authority Children Looked After and Permanency Teams.

CAMHS Early Intervention Service

The CAMHS Early Intervention Service is a small specialist multi-disciplinary team which works with individuals aged from 14 to 21 years in Camden who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis. They aim to give people the best chance of recovery after a first episode of psychosis and to reduce the severity of relapses. They also support and advise carers to involve them as fully as possible in the young people’s care as well as working closely with the young person’s professional network. The team is co-located with the adult Early Intervention Service.