Investigating young people’s engagement with CAMHS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating what helps and hinders young people’s engagement with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
IRAS ID
258028
Contact name
Rachel A Harris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Research and Development
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is a service for children and young people undergoing assessment and intervention for moderate to severe mental health difficulties. National and local data demonstrates that some young people struggle to attend their appointments in CAMHS (NHS Benchmarking Network, 2018). This results in a proportion of young people with unmet mental health needs remaining unsupported. The literature suggests that attendance levels at CAMHS are influenced by a number of factors including deprivation, service and patient related factors (Campbell, Millard, McCartney & McCullough, 2015; Kazdin, Holland & Crowley, 1997; Minty & Anderson, 2004). There are no qualitative data in Scotland in this area. This study intends to inform this gap in the literature and develop an understanding of the idiographic experiences of young people in Glasgow about their engagement with CAMHS.
This study aims to explore aspects of young people’s engagement with CAMHS to understand how we can help young people to seek and receive support for their mental health from CAMHS. Focus groups will be used to elicit the views of young people, including those who have been referred to CAMHS and those who may have little or no prior knowledge of CAMHS. We will gather perspectives from a local youth forum who will act both as consultants and participants in the research. The views of CAMHS staff will also be collected to provide local information as to what may help and hinder the engagement of young people.
This range of views will be analysed alongside large-scale administrative data routinely collected and reported by NHS GGC. We hope that this study will provide rich qualitative data which will inform our understanding of why young people sometimes struggle to attend CAMH Services.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 1
REC reference
19/WS/0083
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion