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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

East London Foundation Trust (ELFT)

Who does the service support?

This service provides a range of mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people up to the age of 18, including specialist mental health support and intervention.

What can you expect from the Service?

The services provided include:

The Adolescent Mental Health Team

Specialist support for young people aged 13-17 presenting with severe mental health illness and behavioural issues


 


Crisis Liaison Team and 24 Hour All Age Help Line

The Crisis team is based in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital Accident and Emergency department 7 days a week between 9am and 9pm on weekdays and 9am and 2pm weekends and public holidays for emergency mental health assessments.

An all age helpline for both adults and children has been set up offering 24/7 emergency mental health crisis care or for other mental wellbeing concerns is available by calling 111 or 01582 538631.


The Emotional and Behavioural Team

This team provides assessments and treatment for children and young people aged 0-17 years with moderate to severe mental health concerns.


Neurodevelopmental Team

A specialist team for children and young people and or a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or moderate severe challenging behaviour. The team also undertakes autism assessments for young people aged 13-17 years.

Information and waiting times for an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) assessment


Community Eating Disorder Service

A dedicated team leading on the direct delivery of intervention for children and young people presenting with moderate and severe eating disorders up to the age of 18.

If you have an eating disorder or struggle with food, the summer can be really tough. There's a huge focus on food around this time of year, and lots of diet talk too. This can be really overwhelming and triggering.

Summertime survival


CAMHS Youth Offending Service

A dedicated CAMHS clinician within the young and offending services with a strong link into CAMHS, supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing currently open to the youth offending service.


CAMHS Schools Liaison Team

A specialist team community based team providing support for children and young people aged 5-17 with mild to moderate mental health problems . The team offers group therapy approaches and training and support on mental health issues. The team also provides a dedicated helpline to schools (07500 835460).


Mental Health Support Team

A specialist team supporting children and young people aged 5-17 years who have excluded from mainstream school or who are at risk of exclusion and experiencing work primarily with 5 primary schools and selected alternative provisions and targeted secondary schools and colleges. The team offers a whole school approach including training on mental health topics.


Discovery College

Our Discovery College offers free workshops to young people between 13-18 years old across Bedfordshire and Luton.
Workshops will focus on numerous topics from arts and crafts to CV writing and career development.
We welcome carers, relatives, professionals, and friends to join this fantastic opportunity and support young people to explore their potential, learn new skills and flourish within their community.
All our workshops will be done in groups either face to face or online. The Discovery College will cultivate a non-judgemental environment and allow everyone to share their voice.

To register for a course all you need to do is complete a Discovery College registration form

If you need any help completing the form, please email us on elft.camhsdiscoverycollege@nhs.net and one of the team members will support you with this.

Once we have received your form you will be booked onto the course and a confirmation will be sent to you with all the details. If the course is fully booked we will inform you that you have been added to an expression of interest list, this means if there is a cancellation you could be offered a place.


Bedfordshire and Luton CAMHS Parent Partnership Forum

We are delighted to reintroduce our regular CAMHS Stakeholder events.

This is an informal opportunity for us to share with you details of our current service developments and for you to raise any issues close to your heart to help influence change.

The topics of discussion will include joint presentations from key partners including ELFT CAMHS and CHUMs.


Child and Adolescent Emotional Wellbeing Programme

A programme for parents and carers to get advice and strategies to support children and young people with their emotional wellbeing.


Free boxing with Boxing Saves Lives

For young people aged 8 - 16 years. Learn the basics of boxing, make friends, have fun and get fit.

Every Monday, 5-6pm starting Monday 21 November 2022. No need to pre-book, just turn up.

Hart Hill Community Centre, Falks Hill, Luton, LU2 0FN


Coping with exam stress

In this Podcast Molly and Marianne are joined by young people Leah and Sharmin, to discuss exam stress and surrounding issues.
Looking at their own experiences with exam seasons and their coping strategies, the CAMHS team and Young People explore available support, the importance of boundaries and mental health, as well as give advice to teachers and parents on how best to support young people during these stressful times.


How do you get involvement from the service/who can refer/request involvement?

Referrals to CAMHS can be made by parents, carers and professionals through a single point of entry on 01525 638613/638614. ) or by completing a self- assessment form on

the East London Foundation Trust website, South Bedfordshire and Luton page

The referral pathway document can be found at the bottom of this page.

 


What happens after the service has been involved?

Once a request for help is received, we will offer you an appointment. At this first appointment, we will spend time discussing how you are feeling and also discuss the reasons you are here. We will listen to you and you can ask as many questions as you like. This is a safe environment and the purpose of it all is to help you feel better. If you find that you do not want to talk much during this appointment, that is completely fine too.

 If you would like to bring a family member to this appointment, you can, as we want you to be feel as comfortable as possible.

After the first meeting, it may be helpful to speak to your GP, teachers or other professionals involved with you and your family. However, this will only be done with your permission.

You will meet with one or more members of the team and we will discuss with you the difficulties you have been having, what you would like to be different and how CAMHS can help.

It may take a few meetings or sometimes longer, but the purpose behind it all is to help make you feel better.

What can parents do if they are not eligible for the service or don't feel that they can refer to this service?

The CAMHS single point of entry is also able to refer and signpost to other wellbeing services.

 


Documents

Download: CAMHS and CHUMS referral pathway
Download: CAMHS Wellbeing Pathway
Download: CAMHS SEND matters July 2023
Download: Chameleon - the Bedfordshire and Luton CAMHS magazine, created by service users
Download: Summertime surviving and thriving
Download: Transforming care - children and young people's self-referral pathway
Download: Transforming care - children and young people's self-referral form

Who to contact

Contact Name
East London Foundation Trust
Telephone
Website
East London Foundation Trust

Where to go

Name
Luton CAMH team
Address
1st Floor Charter House
Alma Street
Luton
Bedfordshire
Postcode
LU1 2DL

Other Details

Last updated 28/02/2024