Information for families

The Department of CAMH provides highly specialised assessment and treatment of mental health disorders in both children and adolescents.  It takes referrals directly from Tier 3/4 consultants in all parts of the country (including internally within GOSH), especially if there are particularly difficult problems for which local services want expert advice. 

In the case of referrals from Consultant Paediatricians, efforts are made to liaise with local CAMHS services regarding local provision, alone or in conjunction with the GOSH DCAMH service.  

DCAMH services are commissioned along with the rest of GOSH services through block contracts with PCTs through Acute Paediatrics. With few exceptions therefore, all children in the UK can access the services without the need for specific agreement around individual cases.  

For information, please access the documents linked to the DCAMH Home Page.

The Mildred Creak Unit is an intensive intervention 9-bed inpatient unit admitting children from 7-14 years of age with a range of mental health problems such as eating disorders, somatising disorders and other emotional & behavioural disorders.  The unit forms a fundamental part of the integrated service offered by the Department of CAMH's outpatient services.

For more information on the Unit, please click on the links to information available on the DCAMH Home Page.

The Department offers a range of services within a specialist setting, appropriate to age, clinical & educational need and consists of five distinct multidisciplinary services:

1. Feeding & Eating Disorders Service - largely outpatient service incorporating the GOSH CNS Feeding Support Service, the Under 2’s Feeding Clinic, the CAMHS Feeding and Eating Disorders Service (2-16 years), which caters for: 
   • those with early onset eating disorders or at high risk; 
   • children with behavioural feeding problems in the context of chronic illness/medical problems;
   • severe and chronic selective eaters;
   • infant feeding problems and failure to thrive;
   • emotional eating difficulties (e.g. food phobias) or in the context of somatic problems such as chronic fatigue syndrome.
     • The service is no longer seeing young people with problems of overweight except where there are concerns about a possible eating disorder.
2. Social Communication Disorders Team - (including Autistic Spectrum Disorders) – a diagnostic service providing best practice treatment planning for referring clinicians;
3. Parenting & Child Service - outpatient service working with children & their families either pre-, during or post-child protection or where attachment disorder or trauma are the primary concerns. The three teams in P&C are:
   • Childcare Consultation (CCC) Team - assessment & advice on complex care & protection cases;
   • Attachment and Traumatic Team (ATT) - service aiming to alleviate the psychological distress of children & young people who have experienced traumatic events and/or traumatic bereavement;
   • Parent Interaction with Child Team (PICT) - assessment & treatment of parent/child interaction;
4. Centre for Interventional Paediatric Psychopharmocology

For more information on the DCAMH Outpatient Services, please click on the links to information available on the DCAMH Home Page.