Barnet CAMHS

Barnet CAMHS is the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in the London Borough of Barnet, providing multidisciplinary assessment and treatment of children and young people with mental health or severe emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Barnet CAMHS is an NHS service consisting of five teams which work closely together, with all referrals to Barnet CAMHS coming through a service called CAMHS Access. Find out more about making a referral.

The Barnet CAMHS manager is Tina Read. 

Barnet CAMHS includes the following teams and services:

CAMHS Access and Generic Team (East and West Barnet)

CAMHS Access team provides a central point of referral for professionals to refer young people with mental health concerns. These referrals may then be discussed with the young person, their family, or the referrer in order for the Access team to gather all the relevant information and send the referral to the most appropriate team as quickly as possible, or for signposting for other support in the borough. 

Generic CAMHS teams provide assessment, treatment and support to children and young people aged 0-18 years and their families for a range of mental health, behavioural and emotional wellbeing needs. The service offers a range of individual, family and group based interventions. There are two Generic CAMHS teams within Barnet (East and West).

These services are provided by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (with clinics based at Oak Lane, Holly Oak, Barnet General Hospital, Redhill Clinic and in community locations) and Tavistock Clinic and Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Paediatric Liaison

The Paediatric Liaison team provides specialist mental health provision and consultation for young people and families who are inpatients or outpatients under the care of the paediatric and neonatal services at Barnet Hospital. Focus is on improving identification, engagement and providing early, brief and some longer-term interventions to reduce the high levels of psychiatric morbidity in young people with long-term physical illnesses, life threatening medical conditions and in those with medical unexplained symptoms.

The team also provide support for staff and families in the case of child deaths, early parent work and support in neonatal units where babies have extreme prematurity or complex medical problems. Paediatric Liaison team runs parent groups on neonatal units and have a specific SLA for the Diabetes service, providing input within multidisciplinary clinics; meetings and one-to-one work with this client group. The team provides induction and training for paediatrics around paediatric mental health topics, consultation to the paediatric and neonatal units around complex cases, and act as a liaison between CAMHS and the hospital. The team regularly provides liaison input to enhance the safe care, assessment and follow up of young people with self-harm who present to A&E and the ward. We provide clinical presence and consultation at all three weekly psychosocial meetings on the ward and in A&E.

Barnet Adolescent Service (BAS)

Barnet Adolescent Service (BAS) are a specialist team working with young people between the ages of 13 and 17 facing complex, severe or chronic mental health issues. Often these young people find it hard to engage with other services and may be at a higher risk, with complex presentations including chronic self-harm and psychosis. BAS consists of a multidisciplinary team which includes psychiatrists, psychotherapists, psychologists, family therapists, nurses and adolescence mental health workers. Most of the team's work is based around talking; this may be with the young person or with members of their family, and/or in a group. Some young people may be offered medication after a psychiatric assessment.

Service for Children and Adolescents with Neurodevelopmental disorders (SCAN)

SCAN are a multidisciplinary team (consisting of psychiatry, clinical psychology, child psychotherapy, family therapy, counselling psychology, nursing) providing a full CAMHS provision to children and adolescents with moderate to severe neurodevelopmental difficulties and comorbid mental health problems.

Referrals are accepted when mental health problems are identified in accordance with the CAMHS referral criteria and when the child or adolescent attends one of the special schools in Barnet. Under particular circumstances referrals are also accepted from special educational units within mainstream education.

SCAN clients have chronic and life-long difficulties and will often be re-referred through-childhood, or they require long term monitoring of medication, as their difficulties are generally linked to their disabilities. The majority of clients receive a general initial assessment, although some may require complex specialist diagnostic assessments involving several clinicians and other services, for example a paediatrician.

A range of short or long term treatments are offered as would be expected from a multidisciplinary team. However, all assessment and treatment work is increased in complexity due to the comorbid neurodevelopmental difficulties and mental health problems, requiring more resources to assess, diagnose, treat and liaise with the many professionals involved with the client and their family. A great deal of anxiety and risk surround our client group and the team has to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to safely support families in need.

SCAN offer consultation and joint assessments to other CAMHS team in Barnet and foster good links with the special schools, Children with Disabilities Service, the voluntary sector and the community paediatricians. Alongside this assessment and treatment we offer support to parents who are frequently suffering from the stress and low mood that can come with parenting a child with a mental health problem and a major disability.

Barnet CAMHS in Specialist Schools

A team of Child and Adolescent Mental Health professionals support young people in Barnet’s Specialist schools: Pavillion, Meadway and Oak Hill Campus.

Barnet Primary and Secondary Project

This Child and Adolescent Mental Health service to schools is now being delivered by our partners in the local authority. For more information about this service, please contact Bernadette Sotiriou: bernadette.sotiriou@barnet.gov.uk   

Looked After Children/Adoption Services

This Child and Adolescent Mental Health service to Looked After Children (LAC) and Adopted Children is now being delivered by our partners in the local authority.

Useful links

Barnet Council Local Offer - this London Borough of Barnet website helps young people with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities and their families find the information they are looking for

Kooth is an online counselling and emotional well-being platform for children and young people, accessible through mobile, tablet and desktop and free at the point of use.