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Forensic CAMHS (FCAMHS)

For:

Children, Young people

Available in:

Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Camden, City and Hackney, Enfield, Haringey, Havering, Islington, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest

We help people with

What we do

We are a free specialist community consultation service designed to provide consultation to professional networks regarding young people that cause them great concern, specifically in relation to risk and the extreme and criminal behaviour. These young people may also be presenting as risky and difficult to manage safely in the community. 

We provide a specialist forensic service which has been based at the Portman clinic since June 2018. The service was designed to support professionals to keep young people in the community safely who are working with young people who at risk of or have harmed other young people in the community.

FCAMHS is a community consultation model. The service offers clinical consultation to professional networks, which are based on psychoanalytical understanding of risk. The team offers consultation across a variety of community, residential, secure, and custodial settings. The team may also occasionally offer specialist assessment for young people who present with very complex needs and where this cannot otherwise be completed by the existing network.

In addition to our clinical role, the FCAMHS team also provides a range of community based projects, which are aimed at inclusion and equal service opportunity for all boroughs and services. Some of these projects include: co-location to sites, including YOTs and Social Care sites; group training programs with schools; reflective practice groups with third sector organisations in service specialist training sessions; and supervision groups for placement managers.

Possible outcomes

We provide a psychological relational formulation to professions that relies on others’ experiences with a young person. We help them both understand the meaning of the behaviour and evaluate their role in relation to that, both within the network and in relation to the referred patient. We are also:

  • Providing an opinion based on psychodynamic and systemic understanding to offending behaviours and risk
  • Provision of psychological – relational formulations based on our multidisciplinary experience in working with people who present with harmful behaviours
  • At time the completion of structured forensic risk assessment
  • Identification of protective factors (mitigating risk)
  • Provision of risk management assessment and formulation
  • Involvement of the young person and their family in the care plan
  • Possible support in the clarification in psychiatric diagnosis and assessment

The service is largely not client facing, except for the occasion when we would complete an assessment with a young person. In these situations, the assessment will be completed at their local CAMHS or Social Care office with the option of their guardian present. They will have an opportunity for a feedback session after the assessment.

Confidential advice line

Our confidential advice line is open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.

It is available to any professional in our geographical area who have concerns about young people they are working with, and who would like some confidential advice.

To contact please email portman.fcamhs@nhs.net or call 020 8938 2089.

How to access this service

To make a referral to FCAMHS please make sure the referral meets the following criteria:

  • The young person is under 18 years old
  • The young people is from one of our 12 London boroughs
  • The young person is presenting with behaviours or risk of behaviours that put others or the community at risk of harm
  • Consent to share information has been obtained
  • The professional network is established and will be involved in consultation with FCAMHS 
  • CAMHS or Local Authority must be involved and maintain clinical responsibility for the young person

Please complete the referral form below and email to portman.fcamhs@nhs.net. The intake team will review and let you know the outcome of the referral request.

Download referral form

What service users have told us

I had a very complex case involving a young person engaging in behaviours, highly harmful to others. I asked FCAMHS to provide consultation and the outcome was beyond helpful. They stayed on the case for as long as I needed offering multiple consultations to help us understand the young person and how to intervene to support the young person. The service was great, and I will continue to use FCAMHS

Professional in London
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