>>Ellie: Knowing that I was coming to the end of my CAMHS journey. It was quite daunting
at first because I didn't think there'd be any other help there.
>>Helen Farmer: Thurrock CAMHS services were experiencing a high demand and long waiting
times for their services. And we were keen as commissioners to look at ways to help them
face that challenge. One of the things we found was that clinicians felt that they were
holding on to young people into the service and not discharging them.
>>Paula Stockwell-Lance: My worry as a clinician was where are young people going to go? You
know, they're working with us, you build a relationship, you build a rapport, you put
your heart and soul into the job to be fair and knowing however that there's more need
out there, there's more young people that need our services, so you're kind of balancing
all of the time, you know, when do your discharge when's the right time to discharge?
>>Helen Farmer: So we wanted to find a way of really supporting young people as they
transition from the service and move out into the community. It was very important that
we developed a person centred approach and wanted to offer personal health budgets as
part of that offer, we developed a business case that was presented to the collaborative
commissioning forum in Essex, which was supported and implemented last year.
>>Paula: Kiran Hello >>Kirandip Kaur (Kiran): Hi, so has Paula
told you about me? I'm the youth facilitator for Positive Pathways, it's nice to meet you.
>>Wendy Robertson: At Thurrock and Brentwood Mind we've employed a youth facilitator to
work within the CAMHS team locally. And her role is really to meet with the young people,
their parents, carers, and the therapists, and to look at what their interests are and
what they hope to achieve. So it's really a social prescribing model.
>>Kiran: Hi, my name's Kiran. I’m the youth facilitator for positive pathways, and I work
with Thurrock Mind to help young people transition back into the community through offering them
extra support.
>>V/O: There are four stages to the process.
The first stage is a CAMHS worker and a Mind Youth facilitator have a pre-discharge meeting
with the young person and family.
>>Kiran: So why don't you tell me about a
few things, some interests that you might have that I could maybe, you know, just to
get to know you so I can see her can help you.
>>V/O: The second stage is the personalised care and support plan session with a mind
worker that takes place with the young person and family.
>>Emma: When we first met Kiran, it was after one of Lilly's counselling sessions. She got
introduced to us to help Lilly do things, like on the other side of counselling and
she's given me lots and lots of information for the help that’s also out there for me.
>>Kiran: What kind of things have helped you so far then? Cause we've done quite a few
things together haven't we? >>Lilly: Like the counselling, like just talking
to all different people. >>Emma: Like just the music school as well.
>>Lilly: Yeah. She just helped me boost my confidence, that's the main thing.
>>V/O: Third stage, the Mind Youth Facilitator sees what's available in the community to
meet the needs of the care plan and to support the young person.
>>Kirandip Kaur (Kiran): As part of young people's personalised care plan. I introduced
them to other organisations in Thurrock, such as Thurrock Mind, Princes Trust, Inspire Youth,
Open Door peer mentoring and Temple Springs, the music school. And I walk them down to
the organisation to introduce them to the services.
>>V/O: Stage four is the personal health budget where it's used for young person's needs,
where there isn't an available community service already identified.
>>Kiran: And now you've got your own little circle of friends and you know, likeminded
people... Joe shared that he's interested in music and
how he wasn't able to access that in college. So I applied for a personal health budget
and he managed to get 12 paid sessions for one to one tutoring for keyboard lessons.
>>Joe: Oh, it's boosted my confidence immensely. I can now actually be confident in going up
the stages. >>Carrie: Joe’s never ever picked a career.
He didn't know what he wanted to do, but music, I know that he really enjoys it and he loves
to do it. And now hopefully by this, he can do that.
>>Kirandip Kaur (Kiran): Ellie Ellie, when I first met with her, she shared about the
lack of the social groups that she struggled with. So part of my work was making groups
and it really helped her meet new friends. >>Ellie: She brought me places, um, like Temple
Springs, where I got offered a job and it's given me opportunity to grow more in myself
that I wouldn't have had otherwise. >>Helen Farmer: We're really proud of the
work that's being carried out here from our CAMHS services and Mind working in partnership
with wider stakeholders across Thurrock it’s been really exciting to see their relationship
grow and flourish. There's new ideas coming out every time we meet.
>>Michael Watts-Jimenez: The best thing about the whole project is just opening up. It's
almost like we've had French windows put into the clinic and suddenly we can see the outside
community and we can see all the resources that are available there.
>>Helen Farmer: 40 young people have been through the system so far, only six of which
have actually required a personal health budget to support their personalised plan. This really
reflects the amount of resource and opportunities there are out there in the community for young
people in Thurrock. >>Paula Stockwell-Lance: I know now that I'm
very confident when I discharged somebody. There's something else out there for them.
There's another kind of plan of care. Kirandip Kaur (Kiran): I really enjoy my work,
supporting young people, seeing them flourish. It's almost as if I'm walking alongside them
on their journey.
>>Emma; It’s like she's an angel in disguise
for us.
>>Ellie: Luckily I had Kiran and the Positive
Pathways worker there, to give me more guidance and support that I needed.