North Bedfordshire CAMHS

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provides outpatient assessments, support and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 experiencing moderate to severe mental health problems. The service works to provide them with a greater knowledge of their condition and improve coping techniques.

We provide help to children and to the wider family, including those living with foster parents, adopted children and young people living in children’s homes. The service may see children and adolescents on their own, with their parents or with their family, and may also see parents on their own.

How to Refer into Bedfordshire & Luton CAMHS

Address

9 Rush Court
Bedford
Bedfordshire
MK40 3JT
United Kingdom

Opening hours

9:00 - 17:00
Monday to Friday

Email address

elft.spoebedfordshire@nhs.net

Telephone number

01234 893301

Conditions Treated

Children, adolescents and their families referred to the service may be experiencing different kinds of problems. These may include:

Eating difficulties
Emotional feelings such as those of unhappiness, loneliness
Fears and anxieties
Parents having problems managing their children or feeling that their own difficulties are affecting their children
Relationship problems
Traumatic experiences
The service is also available to help children, adolescents and their families with mental health issues related to physical or learning disabilities.

The service consists of a multi-disciplinary team that offers a range of expertise including:

Art Psychotherapists
Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists
Clinical Psychologists
Nurse Specialists
Psychotherapists
Social Workers
Other Child & Adolescent

Referrals can be made by GPs, healthcare professionals, schools and colleges.
You will need to complete this CAMHS Referral Form for Professionals. Ideally, this will be completed in collaboration with the young person, parent or carer. This will enable us to decide how best to help the client and their family.
Completed referral forms should be emailed to elft.spoebedfordshire@nhs.net

We also accept self-referrals
From April 2020, young people or parents/carers who live in Bedfordshire and Luton will be able to self-refer to their CAMHS service. Please complete this form which should be emailed to elft.spoebedfordshire@nhs.net
The team will screen all referrals for risk and need. For any referrals that we are unable to accept during these challenging times, support will be provided in the form of psychoeducation and self-help.

Looked After Children (LAC):
Bedfordshire Looked after Children CAMHS provides outpatient assessments, support and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 years, who are in Local Authority care and are experiencing moderate to severe mental health problems. The LAC team works with children and young people who are not living at home with their birth parents, and are placed with foster carers or in residential homes, either voluntarily or through a Care Order being granted to the Local Authority by the Courts.

Bedfordshire LAC CAMHS is a multi-disciplinary team comprised of a Professional Clinical Lead, a Psychotherapist, a Family Systemic Therapist, a Specialist Nurse and a Social Worker.

The Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS):

The Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS) is a single dedicated team developed within tier 3 CAMHS across Luton CCG and Bedfordshire CCG and includes a range of CAMHS professionals. The team leads on the direct delivery of interventions for children and young people presenting with moderate and severe presentations of eating disorders. The service model includes an appropriate emphasis on prevention and early intervention.

Early Help:

The targeted team provide rapid access to targeted interventions for children which will be facilitated at an early stage of need. This will include joint health and social care assessments and consultation for the Team Around the Child, focusing on the principle of strong, collaborative partnership working between agencies.

Schools Programme:

This is a targeted group of specialist CAMHS Mental Health Practitioners who are embedded in each of the Upper Schools and Colleges within Bedfordshire providing specialist emotional health training to staff, case consultation and where appropriate direct assessment if required.

The named lead in schools are responsible for mental health, developing closer relationships with CAMHS in support of timely and appropriate referrals to services.

Neuro-Developmental Team (NDT):

This is a countywide Tier 3 service, where Tier 2 services such as nurse-led sleep clinic, nurse-led behavioural clinics, locality parenting support teams, CHUMS and Child Development Centre assessments (as appropriate) have been previously. Referrals are based on young people presenting with a combination of both: evidence of learning disability (IQ<70) and/or a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or severe challenging behaviour and or moderate to severe.

Adolescent Mental Health Team (AMHT):

The specialist team work with young people aged 13-17 presenting with severe mental illness and behaviour indicating a high risk to themselves or others. This will include young people who are psychotic, bipolar, severely depressed or dysphoric and emotionally unstable, or with other conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder where there is a high level of dysfunction, and those isolated to a marked degree when it is considered a significant mental illness is likely. The main function of the model is to provide an alternative to in-patient admission through community-based interventions.

Emotional and Behavioural Team (EBT x 2):

Bedford Emotional and Behavioural Teams are based in Bedford and Central Bedfordshire, split across two sites (one in the North and one in the South of the county). The teams provide assessment and treatment for young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties unless already managed by any of the above specialist teams.