What should I expect from a face to face appointment?

If you have been offered a face to face appointment, please read the following:-

• If you or anyone in your household is experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, no matter how mild, you must let us know prior to your appointment. These symptoms include:
  • A high temperature
  • A new, continuous cough
  • Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
• If you have an appointment with one of our teams, please contact the team to let them know you are unable to attend. They will discuss with you suitable alternative arrangements.
• Please arrive on time for your appointment.
• Hand sanitiser or hand wash is availbale for use in all our reception areas if you wish to use this on arrival. 
• We request that you wear a face covering when attending your appointment in the clinic. We would encourage you to provide the face covering for yourself. You will not be denied care if you are not wearing a face covering, and we will make one available if this is needed. If you have any difficutlies with wearing a face covering, please discuss this with your clinician. Your clinicians may also wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which could include a mask, apron and gloves.
• Thank you for your understanding and support in preventing the spread of coronavirus.

How do I get referred to CAMHS?

The first step is usually to speak to your doctor, teacher or any other professional in your life.

They’ll ask you to tell them a bit about the kind of problems you’re experiencing so they can think about what sort of help you might need. If they think you need CAMHS, they will make a referral on your behalf.

There is now also the opportunity to speak to a professional directly if you think you need some support. For more information on this, please visit our self-referral page.

If we think we are the right place to help, we will offer what is called an assessment appointment. This appointment is usually around six weeks after we have been asked to see you. It may be sooner if there are reasons to believe you couldn’t wait this long and you need to be seen straight away.

Where will my appointments be?

We have a number of CAMHS bases in the county. These are:

• Lincoln
• Grantham
• Boston
• Louth.

You will usually be invited to a base nearest to you. 

How long will my appointments be?

First appointments with CAMHS are usually around 90 minutes.

Any other appointments will depend on the person you see, and the type of support you need.

What sort of things will you ask me at my first appointment?

Remember, this first appointment is a chance to meet a CAMHS practitioner and for you to as ask us questions about what we do and how we can help.

Some of the things we ask you might include:

• Who you live with, and how things are in your family
• What life was like when you were younger
• What school or college is like for you
• How you would describe some of your difficulties, and when you believe they started
• What you would like to change by coming to CAMHS
• What activities or interests you have and enjoy
• Who are the supportive people in your life

We understand that speaking about your thoughts and feelings can feel really scary at first. We will try and help you as much as we can.

It is also important to let you know you will never be forced to share anything with us that you don’t want to.

In your first appointment, you will be asked to complete some forms or questionnaires.  These can help you and the CAMHS practitioner make sense of what is going on, and the best way to support you.  When you start to feel better, we can look back at them to see how you are improving and the excellent progress you are making.

Will my family or carer come to my appointment?

If you’re under 16, it’s often really helpful for your family or carers to be involved in the process as they sometimes know you the best and can support your outside of appointments.

However, we also understand that there are some things you may not feel comfortable sharing with them, so we will always give you the opportunity to be seen alone.

If you’re 16 years or over, you can talk to CAMHS staff about who you would like to come to the appointments with you.

Will you share everything I say with my parents or carers?

We will not automatically share everything with your parents or carer, if this is something you do not want.

The only exception to this would be if we were really concerned about your safety, or the safety of another person.

In this instance we would have to tell other people in order to keep you safe!

How will CAMHS contact me? How would I get in contact with CAMHS if needed?

Once you are open to CAMHS, your lead professional will explain how to contact them or the office if you need support inbetween your scheduled sessions.

CAMHS may also try and contact you inbetween individual sessions. They will speak with you about the best way to do this, however this is usually over telephone. Please be aware that CAMHS number come up as "no caller ID" when ringing.

Who else will know I'm seeing CAMHS?

When we first meet with you, we will go through something called confidentiality form together.

This is where you tell us if there are any other professionals in your life (e.g. school, support worker) you think it would be helpful for us to speak to.

We would always ask you first, and would not do this without your permission. The only time we would do so without this was if we were worried about your safety, or the safety of another person.

A lot of people worry that their friends will find out they are seeing someone from CAMHS.

Your friends won’t know unless you want them to!

Will I see the same person each time?

After your assessment appointment, your CAMHS team gets together and thinks about who is the best clinician to support you.

It is important you are matched with the right person, with the right training and qualities to help you.

All appointments after your initial assessment would usually be with the same worker, as we recognise it is really important you build a relationship.

This will only change if your care plan changes and we would always discuss this with you.

How often will you need to see me?

The frequency of your appointments varies on the type of problem you are having and will depend on what you agree with your CAMHS Practitioner.

Often appointments may be fortnightly or weekly, but as things start to improve the frequency of your appointments may become less and less as you move towards discharge. 

If at any time you feel that you need to see CAMHS more often, we would talk and agree this together.

If I come to CAMHS will I be diagnosed?

When you visit your GP or doctor about a physical health problem they will talk to you about your symptoms, how long you have had them and what effect this is having on your life. Similarly CAMHS practitioners will talk to you and your family in order to better understand your difficulties and the effect this is having on your life. Some CAMHS practitioner may also refer to these problems as symptoms.

If you came to CAMHS you may talk about diagnosis, which simply describes a set of symptoms or problems that often occur together. However, it is important to remember that not everyone’s problems fit neatly into one diagnosis. Things can change in your life quite quickly. It is also important to remember that having a diagnosis wouldn’t affect or change any treatment agreed here at CAMHS. CAMHS are there to help you work through problems and difficulties, regardless of how they are labelled.

Young people have lots of different thoughts about diagnosis. Some young people don’t like being labelled or feel that a diagnosis makes them feel quite hopeless. Others feel like having a name for something helps.

If you’ve got any questions about diagnosis, please talk about this with your CAMHS worker

Will my future job or career be affected by coming to CAMHS?

Did you know that around 1 in 10 young people experience mental health difficulties?

This does not make you abnormal and will not stop you from getting a job or career in the future.

Just like school and college, it is your choice whether you tell an employer about your current or past mental health difficulties.  There are also lots of employment laws that protect you from being unfairly treated or discriminated in the workplace if you choose to tell them.

Please bear in mind that the only employer that will directly ask for details of your mental health history, and take this into account if you apply for a job with them, would be the Armed Forces.

What if CAMHS can't help me?

Sometimes CAMHS may think that you need to try some more things first before coming to a mental health service, or that we aren’t the best place to help and another service would be better for you. If this is the case then we will always tell you and the person who referred you how to access this service and how they could help you.

I'm transitioning to adult services, what can I expect?

As we know transitioning can be scary time for young people, we have written a whole section on the website with information on what to expect from this.  Please visit our transitioning to adult service page to find out more.

What if I am coming up to 18 years old, what service do I go to?

Currently mental health services are often divided into categories based on age such as CAMHS, Adult, and Older Adult. Therefore it may be confusing to always know where to get the right help for you when you are nearly 18 years old.

If you feel you need urgent help and feel you are in crisis, please take a look at our 'I need help now' page.

If you have never, or are no longer having appointments with CAMHS, and are nearly 18 years old you may wish to consider a self referral to steps2change. Please visit our Steps2Change page to find out more information about this service and self-referral. 

More information on all local adult mental health services can be found our Transitioning to Adult Services page and might help you try and decide what support you think is best for you. To help you work through this, please consider visting your GP to talk through referral options.