Growing with you: CAMHS children looked after and unaccompanied asylum seekers

For:

Available in:

Camden

We help people with

What we do

We are a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychiatry, clinical psychology, social work and nursing.

We work with children and young people up to 18 years, who cannot live with their parents/families and are cared for in Camden and placed in foster care or residential homes. We aim to support young people’s emotional well-being and mental health and offer support dependent on their presenting need rather than solely based on diagnosis.

We can help you with;

Concerns about wellbeing and/or mental health.
If there are concerns about yours, or someone else’s safety
Concerns about challenging behaviours
Risk of placement breakdown
Transitions e.g. to a new placement.
Support in care planning

We are work closely with social workers from Camden Council, which eases communication and access to mental health support. We offer flexible appointments and as well as seeing young people in our offices, we are able to offer outreach and see young people in places where you feel more comfortable, such as home or school.

What to expect

Once we receive a referral we usually have an initial meeting with the referring social worker and other professionals in the network to hear more about you and plans for your care. At this meeting we then plan with the network the best way to engage the young person ie where to meet them and who else should be present.

The first meeting could take place in a council owned building, the young person’s school or where they live. We will meet them wherever they feel comfortable. The clinician will talk to young person about the referral but at the same time be led by the young person and explore what they think they need help with. Our appointments are between 50 mins and an hour long. At the end of the appointment we will make a short plan with the young person about the next steps.

How to access this service

Referrals are usually made by social workers.

We also accept referrals from GPs and other professionals such as looked after Children nurses.

What previous patients say

Basically I chose my day that I could come and it was cool that I could do that and when I couldn’t they would let me change my. I would choose my day

Yes same they give you options you choose day – all the week you feel good and after two weeks you feel down and then you have an appointment. After two weeks (appointments)

The therapy helped me to deal with some things I felt uncomfortable to talk about otherwise, and to get some things off my chest. I learned how to live with anxiety rather than how to get rid of it. I am more sociable now than before, more willing to get out with friends

Just do it, just go for it! There is a lot of stigma around therapy, but it’s not as drastic as people think. I think everyone should have a therapist

Really helpful teach me a lot, live in hostel everyone different experience but no one wants to share their story, when you hear someone story and you share your story, we live with our families and no one want to share but when you share with company it helps, when I tell my story it feels good, especially I cannot sleep in the night the bad noise comes to me, so sharing story really helps