Islington Community CAMHS has a long history of working with schools, supporting staff to improve the emotional health of their students.

CAMHS clinicians are allocated to each of the schools in the borough. Each school and clinician is supported by a member of the Schools’ Lead Team.

The clinician in our school is a Clinical Psychologist. The work that they do in the school will depend on the needs of the school, the children and families.

What sort of work do CAMHS offer in schools?

How the CAMHS time in each school is used is very varied and is developed through discussion with senior staff in each school. It can include:

• Seeing young people, parents/carers in school individually or together to help with children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, especially where the difficulties are related to school
• Observing children in the school setting
• Offering groups for children and/or parents
• Screening for developmental disorders such as ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Disorder
• Being part of the school’s Pastoral Care Team and attending meetings where children, young people and families with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties are discussed
• Talking to school staff and parents and carers about possible referrals to CAMHS and what to expect
• Helping communication between school and home
• Offering training to school staff
• Organising mental health screenings of whole year groups to help schools understand what the needs in the school might be
• Working closely with other professionals who are working with children and young people in school (e.g. Educational Psychologists / Social Workers / Speech and Language Therapists /Families First / Mentoring services such as Chance UK  and Friendship Works)

If you are referred to your school clinician, they will invite you to meet with them, usually in a quiet room during school hours.