Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have announced a single point of access for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health is being established in Dudley.
The new service will provide a simplified single route so that children, young people, families, carers and professionals can be directed to the right service, eliminating the need to refer to multiple services.
The single point of access will triage referrals and determine which service is the most appropriate for the young person – this could be signposting for further support, emotional wellbeing services or specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
The single point of access service will be accepting referrals from professionals, including from those in educational settings, however it will not be accepting self-referrals. This is to ensure equal and appropriate access to all children and young people’s emotional mental health and wellbeing services across the Black Country.
This development is part of a wider review into the emotional wellbeing pathway of care in Dudley that is taking place over the coming months. There is currently a waiting list for support and it is hoped that by introducing the new route it will reduce waiting times by ensuring that young people get support tailored to their individual needs, rather than a standardised approach.
Waiting times are expected to remain high for a while as the new process is embedded but then they should start to reduce.
They will continue to prioritise support for anyone in crisis and ensure they are seen in a timely manner.
From 22 May 2023, all referrals from professionals for emotional wellbeing and mental health support for children and young people registered with a Dudley GP should be sent to the Single Point of Access team via Bchft.camhsdudley@nhs.net or you can call them on 01384 324689.
The What? Centre will continue to see children between 9 and 17 who are on their waiting list but will not be able to accept new referrals. They will, however, continue to take referrals for their Fusion BAME/LGBTQ+ project, for their BeeHIVe HIV testing, counselling and support project, their Together family project, for private counselling and for the 18-25 year old clients.
Click here for the BLACK COUNTRY CAMHS SINGLE POINT OF ACCESS (SPA) REFERRAL FORM.
