What were we trying to do? 
We knew that approximately 25% of referrals made to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across Greater Manchester (GM) were rejected. We wanted to understand why this happens and how we could improve the process of referring to CAMHS to make sure that young people and their families received timely and appropriate support.  

Why was it important?  
We wanted to reduce the distress to young people and their families caused by receiving a ‘rejected’ referral and to reduce the time wasted by services reviewing ‘inappropriate’ referrals.  

How did we do it?  
We worked with mental health providers and GM mental health leads to understand the problems of CAMHS referrals across GM. We explored referral data across GM, and consulted widely with people who referred to CAMHS (GPs, school staff), as well as with young people and their families, to understand the barriers and enablers to making appropriate referrals. We also explored the CAMHS referral data to understand the referral pathways and explore inequalities in accessing the service.

Who did we work with?  
We worked with mental health providers across GM, GPs, school staff, young people and their families across GM to understand the challenges of making appropriate referrals.  

More information

 

 

 

Programme Manager
Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk