CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, a network of NHS teams that assess and treat mental health problems in young people from birth to age 18. If you searched “CAHMS,” you’re not alone: the acronym gets misspelled constantly, but it refers to the same thing. These are specialist, multidisciplinary teams available across the UK that work with children, teenagers, and their families when mental health difficulties go beyond what a school counselor or GP can manage on their own.
What CAMHS Actually Does
CAMHS teams provide two broad things. First, they assess and treat children and young people experiencing mental health problems, taking into account emotional, developmental, environmental, and social factors. Second, they offer training, consultation, and support to other professionals who work with young people, such as teachers, social workers, and GPs.
The conditions most commonly seen in CAMHS include depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and behavioral disorders. Teams also work with young people dealing with self-harm, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trauma, and phobias. The service is designed for moderate to severe problems, so children with milder difficulties are typically supported at the primary care level first.
How to Get a Referral
GPs are the main gateway into CAMHS. Your family doctor assesses the situation and sends a referral if the child’s difficulties meet the criteria for specialist support. For neurodevelopmental concerns like ADHD or autism, educational psychologists are often the primary referral source instead. In some areas, schools, social workers, or other health professionals can also make referrals.
One frustration many families encounter is that referrals can be rejected. Research has found that both GPs and parents express frustration with high rejection rates, partly because GPs themselves are sometimes uncertain about what CAMHS will and won’t accept. If a referral is turned down, it typically means the team feels the child’s needs can be met at a lower level of care, and the GP should be given guidance on alternative support.
What Happens at the First Appointment
The initial CAMHS assessment usually lasts about an hour and a half. You’ll typically see two members of the team. During this appointment, they’ll explain how the service works, ask the young person about the difficulties they’re experiencing and what they’d like to change, and speak with a parent or guardian. There’s no pressure to cover everything in that first meeting, and a parent can stay in the room the whole time if the child wants.
After this initial assessment, the team decides on next steps. This might mean further assessments, a specific diagnosis, a referral to a particular therapist within the team, or sometimes a recommendation back to primary care with advice for the GP. Not every young person who’s assessed ends up in ongoing treatment with CAMHS.
Who Works in a CAMHS Team
CAMHS teams are multidisciplinary, meaning they bring together professionals from different backgrounds. A typical team includes psychiatrists (doctors who specialize in mental health and can prescribe medication), clinical psychologists, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, and social workers. Some teams also include family therapists, speech and language therapists, or art therapists depending on local resources. The mix of professionals means the team can approach a young person’s difficulties from several angles rather than relying on one type of treatment.
Types of Treatment Offered
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely used treatments in CAMHS. It helps young people identify and change unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior, and it has strong evidence for treating anxiety, depression, OCD, phobias, and behavioral problems. For children and teenagers, CBT often involves parents too. Parental counseling is considered an essential part of the process, and young people may be given homework assignments, thought diaries, or activity schedules to work on between sessions.
CBT isn’t the only option. Depending on the child’s needs, CAMHS teams may offer family therapy, play therapy for younger children, psychotherapy, or group work. For some conditions like severe ADHD or depression that hasn’t responded to talking therapies, a psychiatrist within the team may recommend medication. Treatment plans are tailored to the individual, and the approach often shifts as the team learns more about what’s working.
Waiting Times
One of the most common complaints about CAMHS is how long families wait. NHS England tracks the time between referral and second contact (essentially when treatment begins rather than just the initial assessment), and waits vary significantly by region. Some areas manage relatively quickly while others have waits stretching to many months. The picture is complicated further by the fact that assessments for specific conditions like ADHD or autism often take longer than assessments for emotional difficulties like anxiety or depression.
During the wait, GPs can sometimes arrange interim support through school counselors, voluntary sector organizations, or online mental health resources designed for young people. It’s worth asking your GP specifically what’s available locally while you wait.
What Happens at Age 18
CAMHS services end at 18, at which point young people who still need support are transitioned to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS). This transition is widely recognized as a weak point in the system. There’s no standardized national process for the handover: each CAMHS team refers to its local adult service differently, and patients often need to request a new appointment through a referral form. Research has documented a “black hole” during this transition period, where some young people drop out of care entirely between leaving CAMHS and starting with adult services.
If your teenager is approaching 18 and still receiving CAMHS support, it’s worth raising the transition early with the team. Planning ahead gives everyone more time to arrange continuity of care rather than scrambling at the last moment.
Crisis and Emergency Support
CAMHS primarily operates during standard hours, but most areas now have some form of crisis provision for young people experiencing a mental health emergency outside of those times. This might include crisis teams that can visit at home, hospital-based psychiatric emergency services, or crisis phone lines. If a child or teenager is in immediate danger, A&E remains the right place to go, and hospital staff can contact the local CAMHS crisis team from there.
For non-emergency but urgent concerns, many CAMHS teams have a duty clinician available during working hours who can offer phone advice to families already known to the service. If you’re not yet in the system, your GP or 111 can help direct you to the right urgent pathway.