Children, adolescents and their carers’ expectations of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)

Background: The use of service users’ views as performance indicators highlights the trend to make services more responsive to patients’ needs. However, recent research indicates that there is a lack of clear understanding about specialist CAMHS and the outcomes that children, adolescents and their parents hope to achieve from treatment differ. Aims: To explore children/young people’s and parents/carers’ expectations of CAMHS in Leicestershire, England. Methods: Sixty children/young people and their parents/carers were asked to identify goals they want to achieve following contact with CAMHS. Qualitative thematic analysis in relation to Hoagwood’s SFCES model (Symptoms, Functional, Consumer perspectives, Environment and Systems) was used. Results: The question was answered by 46.7% of children and young people and 60% of carers. Overall, children, young people and parents/carers agreed that symptomatic modification and functional aspects were the most important goals. However, internalising items seemed more important for parents/carers than children and adolescents, who in contrast hoped for improvement in externalising factors. Goals outside the scope of CAMHS were also noted for both groups. Conclusion: Attention to children/young people and their parents/carers’ expectations of services is needed to improve therapeutic relationships and engagement. Improvement in mental health literacy and practitioners’ guidance is required to allow service users to set realistic and achievable treatment goals.