NHS Islington...

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Education Service

The CAMHS Education Service is a school based therapy service. It consists of a group of clinical psychologists, child and adolescent psychotherapists and family therapists who work alongside education staff in each of Islington’s secondary schools and pupil referral units.

School staff come and talk to us when they are concerned about a pupil who they work closely with. They may be worried that a child or young person is not coping well with school and perhaps is going through a difficult time in their life. Often, when teachers are worried, parents and young people are also worried.

Why would someone come to see us?

Here are some examples of the sort of things children, young people and their families come and see us about:

• Difficult feelings - sadness, anger, frustration, stress.
• Friendship difficulties - bullying, fighting, loneliness, peer pressure.
• Coping with life after a difficult event.
• Problems with eating.
• Panic
• Self-harming
• Overdoses
• Unusual experiences - seeing or hearing unusual and frightening things.
• Sleep and toilet difficulties.
• Temper tantrums.
• Worries in the family.
• Difficulties at home - arguments, losing someone close to you.
• Health problems.
• Troubling behaviour at school - falling behind with school work, getting on with teachers, difficulties making it in to school everyday

How do we work?

We meet and talk with young people and families to hear how things are at home and at school. We can meet young people and parents separately.

We sometimes offer joint appointments with other staff in school such as school social workers, educational psychologists or learning mentors. This is to make sure we all work together to get the best support for pupils and families.

Most problems we deal with are not straight forward and don’t have quick solutions and it may take us a few meetings to think how best to help. Once we have a bit of a picture, we can start to plan ways forward.

Examples of this might be:

• Working with school staff to find ways to give the right kind of support in school.
• Offering a series of meetings for a child, young person, parent or family looking at personal or family issues.
• Suggesting getting the right kind of help outside the school.

Confidentiality

Anything you tell us is private and confidential to our service. When appointments are offered jointly with workers from the school or other services, we will discuss confidentiality with you.

Sometimes families tell us that it is useful to let teachers or a school know about particular worries and stresses so that they can help to support a child or young person. This is something we will talk to you about.

If we are worried that a child or young person is at risk of harm to themselves, others or from someone else, these are secrets we cannot keep. We will always talk to you about who we need to tell and why.

How are young people referred to the service?

We accept referrals through the school or pupil referral unit's pastoral support system.

Downloads

Service leaflet
Homework tips
Self-help resources and books
Service directory