Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Herefordshire and Worcestershire provides specialist mental health support services to children and young people. In the majority of cases, referral will be made by professional such as a GP or health practitioner for a child or young person to be referred into our services.
All referral information for our services is available below, however we encourage you to visit our services pages first to find out more.
The below details should be used to refer in to Worcestershire CAMHS services listed here: Eating Disorders, CAMHS Plus, Learning Disability Services, Specialist CAMHS (Tier 3).
CAMHS only accepts referrals from professionals working with children and young people where there is concern that the child/young person has a mental health problem.
The service is still currently taking online referrals, you need to be aware that the schedule of group appointments has not be finalised for 2024. All referrals will be considered by the service, triaged, and placed on a holding list. At a point a group becomes available you will be notified by the service.
Referrals welcome from:
Completed forms should be sent to: whcnhs.reach4wellbeing@nhs.net.
We accept referrals where:
We are currently unable to accept referrals if the child or young person:
The Starting Well Partnership run groups for parents/carers who would like to build on their existing parenting skills and learn new approaches to support and recognise the feelings behind their child’s behaviour.
Once a referral is received it will be discussed at our earliest possible triage meeting
Referrals can be made by Social Workers, through Liquid Logic, or by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) practitioners and health professionals through the Trust's staff intranet. To access the portal please use the link below which will also allow you to access online training and information.
Unfortunately we cannot accept referrals from family members/carers.
If you are a young person or carer who looks after a young person, who has had support from Anchor, your feedback is important to us. Please click the link below to complete our feedback form.
A child/young person can be refered into the CAMHS CAST service by a professional if;
Referrals for CAMHS CAST must be completed on this referral form and sent to: whcnhs.camhscast@nhs.net. Any referrals sent to the CAMHS single point of access email will not be processed.
More information for professionals is available in this leaflet.
The information below is used to refer to all Herefordshire CAMHS services, apart from the Eating Disorders service.
All referrals into Herefordshire CAMHS must be completed by professionals using the CAMHS referral form. Guidelines for referrers is also available.
The CAMHS team in Herefordshire receive referrals from people who work closely with children and young people such as GPs, school nurses, health visitors, social workers, specialist staff within schools and paediatricians.
Referrals are screened by the team to make sure they are suitable and to identify urgent referrals. When a referral is accepted the family or young person will be invited to make a CHOICE appointment. Other professionals may also be invited to this appointment.
Confidentiality is very important to CAMHS - all the information given in CAMHS appointments is confidential. Usually only the person who made the referral and the GP will know about the appointments.
The team will only share information about young people when we feel it is absolutely necessary, and the clinicians will always explain what information is being shared and why.
Sometimes it can be helpful to share information, for example with schools or other health staff.
The CAMHS clinician will discuss the information to be shared and ask children, young people and their families/carers for consent to share. Sometimes young people do not want to share their information with their parents/carers. This can be identified in the referral. The CAMHS clinician will discuss this with the young person to understand more about their circumstances and assess whether they are competent to make that decision for themselves.
If there are concerns that a child or young person may be at risk of harm, CAMHS will always share this information with the relevant agencies, though we would hope to inform the child or young person and their family/carers about the referral and the reasons for this.
If you are unsure about anything, please ask the team.
Herefordshire CAMHS Eating Disorder service can be made from this referral form by GP/professionals only.
Please the completed form by emails to whcnhs.herefordceds@nhs.net or:
CAMHS, Benet Building, Ruckhall Lane, HEREFORD, HR2 9RP
Tel: 01432 220450
Referrals into our service are made through the mental health lead within the specific education setting.
The child or young person can also self-refer via the school staff, who will then discuss it with the Mental Health Lead.
Parents/carers can also refer to the service via the designated Mental Health Lead within the school.
Please note that we are an early intervention service and do not offer urgent services. If you are in a crisis or experience severe thoughts of harming self, you can find information about who to contact in emergency and available support.
Referrals are made to the link workers by youth justice officers.
The service supports those up to the age of 18 years and who are open to the Youth Justice Service.