East of England Community Forensic CAMHS: Information for families and carers

What is Forensic CAMHS?

Forensic CAMHS (FCAMHS) is a specialist mental health service that is available to children under the age of 18. We accept referrals from professionals when there is:

• A concern about the child’s mental health; and,
• High-risk behaviour that is causing concern.

Children do not need to have had contact with the police to be seen by our service. We are a service that supports the professionals that are involved with children to help to improve the outcome and try to minimise the risk. We do not take referrals directly from parents or carers.

Who we are

We are a multidisciplinary team, including:

• A child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist
• Psychologists
• A mental health nurse
• A social worker

We also have a peer support worker (a person with lived experience) on the team who supports children and their families. You may also speak with one of our two team administrators or our service manager during your interaction with FCAMHS.

What area do we cover?

We provide a service to children living in, or who are originally from, the following areas:

• Bedfordshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Essex
• Hertfordshire
• Norfolk
• Suffolk

What we do

FCAMHS work in a number of ways (depending on the needs of the child):

• Giving advice to professionals
• Working with multiple agencies
• Meeting with professionals and the child’s family/carers

We sometimes meet with the child to complete an assessment. We don’t meet with every child who is referred to us. FCAMHS will work with the professionals involved to consider the child’s mental health
and how to best manage the risk. We will make suggestions to relevant professionals in relation to this. If possible, we will discuss these plans with the family/carers and the child.

How we will talk to you

We may contact you by phone, meet with you in person and/or send you letters.

What we might ask you

• Information about your child’s early years of life and their current issues;
• Other matters specific to the case; and
• We may ask you for consent to contact other professionals, depending on the circumstances of your child’s case

Who we speak to and why

In the event that a professional simply calls us for advice, we send a summary advice to that professional and no one else. If a professional contacts us and we are worried, we will send a copy of our summary advice to your child’s GP. At that point, you may not know that we have been contacted about your child. We send a copy of all our advice to your child’s GP throughout our involvement.

How to contact us

T 0300 3009300
E cpm-tr.FCAMHS@nhs.net

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