Eleni: Hi I'm Eleni. Maya: I'm Maja.
Eleni: And today we're going to talk about CAMHS.
Eleni: Maja, what is CAMHS?
Maja: CAMHS is child and adolescent mental health services in the UK, just a helpful
service made up of loads of different types of professionals like doctors and
psychiatrists, they will speak to you and together you sort of work out what is
going to be the best option for you.
Eleni: There are different ways that you can be referred into CAMHS
but what kind of ways are there?
Maja: The main one is that you get referred get referred through a GP or through a doctor
which is how I got referred to CAMHS
but you can also get referred through your school and sometimes in
very special cases you can do a self referral where you directly contact them
Eleni: Can you tell us a bit more about your experience?
Maja: I was just really struggling
with a lot of school stress a lot of self-esteem issues and my parents
basically took me to the GP to speak to them and they immediately recommended
CAMHS and then I had an assessment and then they put me in touch with a
counselor and with a group mindfulness session as well
the one-on-one counseling was really - I'd never done anything like it before
it kind of just opened up that as a possibility that I could go and speak to
someone who was a third party and then the group mindfulness session I found
very boring but now looking back at it that taught me such good anti-anxiety
techniques that I still use today.
Eleni: So Maja you talked a little bit about the referral process
how you went to your GP tell us a bit more about that.
Maja: So basically we got invited for a assessment
and that was really nice because they actually give you the option
of having a parent or a friend or someone else come along
with you because it can be really daunting, obviously if there are certain
things that you feel really uncomfortable talking about then that's
fair enough but in order to get that really nice sort of personalized care
that CAMHS is so good for you have to be able to tell them exactly what you need.
Eleni: And sometimes you know it can be a bit of a wait from the time that you go
see your doctor or maybe the first time that you've told a teacher about how
you're feeling and I wonder how was it for you in between
what kind of things did you do?
Maja: So my doctor actually gave me a really good recommendation and
he told me that a really good thing to do was to just keep a bit of a journal I
mean it's good to just sort of write down how you're feeling anyway but
especially when you're going into such a daunting environment it's really
comforting to have almost like a list that you can go back to so you don't get
lost or you don't get confused or forget what you might have said or what you
might not have said so that was a really good way to kind of prepare myself.
Eleni: So there's an online journal on the Childline website as well where young
people can keep that information really safe, so during the assessment the nurse
properly that you'll meet on that first time has lots of questions that they
want to ask to get to know about you.
Maja: If you get asked something by a CAMHS
professional that you don't want to answer you don't have to answer it's not
you know, trying to get everything out of you that they possibly can they really
are there to help and also that it goes both ways that you can ask them
questions as well and you'll get all the information that you need.
Eleni: What happens at maybe a time where you were feeling that you needed maybe more
support and you couldn't wait?
Maja: it can feel a little bit like once you get
referred to CAMHS like "that's it it's over and now I don't need to worry about it anymore"
but actually it is a journey that keeps on going if you are in real
danger and you really need help straight away calling the police or going on
Childline and speaking to you guys
Eleni: And we can contact an ambulance for you if you need to
or maybe we can get back in contact with your doctor and help speed
Eleni: along the referal. Maja: Exactly.
Eleni: Family therapies are really important part of
CAMHS and working with those people who support us what happens when young
people don't have those supportive individuals in their lives?
Maja: it can be all the more tough and sort of it can feel very isolating.
Eleni: So you might be able to take along your social worker
or a teacher who you've got really great
relationship with or maybe just another trusted adult in your life and sometimes
is it okay to go on your own as well?
Maja: Yeah for sure and it's you know it can
be a really scary thing but it can also be really kind of uplifting to do it by
yourself even if you kind of have someone there who you would like to go
with you try going by yourself once or twice and just see how the experience
changes because you might find you can talk more openly.
Eleni: Was there anything else that you took away from CAMHS
or looking back that you might think about you know
this little piece of advice would make things a little bit easier for me.
Maja: At the time I was in such a confusing place that I kind of just wanted someone to
like almost give me like a magic spell and just make everything go away
and so I was quite frustrated a lot of the time because I didn't feel like it
was working quick enough, the frustrating thing about mental health is that it
doesn't have a quick fix but CAMHS was such a good start to that journey
because it just made me aware that there are people I can talk to you, there are
emergency services I can contact if I need to and you know I don't have to feel completely alone.
Eleni: And actually that's really what mental health is it's
about getting to know yourself a bit more learning to accept yourself and
finding your place in the world.
Maja: Exactly and that's what CAMHS want to help you do
you know they're aware that some people need certain things and that's why the
service can be so different for everyone and everyone has such unique experience
and I think that's why if you hear of one person who didn't have such a good
time at CAMHS that shouldn't dissuade you from going yourself just because it
didn't necessarily work in the way that that person wanted it to that doesn't
mean that it won't work for you.
Eleni: Sometimes if you're not happy with
somebody that you meet or you feel like maybe they just aren't quite hearing
what you need it's okay to change who you see and ask to see somebody
different just to get the best out of it for you.
So Maja I'm just thinking for some young people who aren't working with CAMHS or
maybe CAMHS isn't the right thing for them what kind of other support might there be?
Maja: There are lots of other sort of face-to-face counseling options
I know that I did school counseling for a bit there are lots of NHS services as well
Childline for example has the message boards which are really great
because they're a very very safe place they're anonymous you can just kind of
vent what you're feeling which is such an important thing to be able to do.
Eleni: Maja, thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself and so much for experiences
and being here with us today.
Maja: Thank you for having me. Eleni: Thank you.
Eleni: See you all next time. Maja: Bye.