Seminar looks at barriers and facilitators to person-centred care in CAMHS
Last week, a seminar hosted at the Anna Freud National Centre by the Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU) and Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) started a conversation around barriers and facilitators to person-centred care within child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
Despite a recent focus on the need to prioritise person-centred care in child mental health services, research shows that children and young people are rarely actively involved in their treatment. The seminar, which was part of a series called “So What?”, looked at why the reality and ideal are so mismatched.
The seminar was based on a recent systematic review which was presented by lead author Dawid Gondek (who also ran the Virgin Money London marathon for us in April!) and followed by an interactive discussion with a panel made up of researchers, clnicians, young people and service-user advocates.
The audience, which included practitioners, students, researchers and policy-makers, were able to ask questions of the panel which featured Dawid and other authors Dr Duncan Law, Daniel Hayes and Kate Martin from Common Room, facilitated by Director of EBPU and CORC, Professor Miranda Wolpert.
Discussions were further brought to life by a virtual conversation on Twitter and a post-seminar tweet chat with We Mental Health Nurses (@WeMHNurses #WeMHNs). Lily Levy, ex-Research Officer at CORC highlighted the need to ask young people: “What do you want your care to look like, what do you want to achieve, what shall we do in this session?”.
The review also outlines key recommendations to improve provision of person-centre care which were echoed during the seminar. These include a call to provide professionals with more training in using the approach and supporting them to use it flexibly to meet the unique needs of service users while also being responsive to times when it may be less appropriate.
This was the third in EBPU and CORC’s co-hosted “So What?” seminar series. The series aims to bridge evidence and practice in child mental health by asking “So what does this mean for policy and practice?” in response to research findings, project outcomes, and the work of our collaborators. Follow us on Twitter and #SoWhatSeminars to find out what the next seminar will discuss.