NHS Islington...

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Looked After Children Team

Children and young people who are looked after by Social Services have a higher risk of experiencing difficulties with their mental health and emotional well being than those who are not looked after.

The CAMHS Looked After Children Team aims to ensure that looked after children and their carers are provided with timely and appropriate mental health services, to promote the child’s psychological health and to support their placement.

The team also offers advice and consultation to those working with looked after children, including social workers in Islington’s childcare, fostering, adoption and residential services and local health and education staff.

Our team

We are a multi-disciplinary team of experienced child mental health workers and therapists. The team currently includes clinical psychologists and child psychotherapists, a social worker and a family therapist. The team has access to assessments by child and adolescent psychiatrists from the Child and Family Consultation Service.

Problems we can help with

Mental health problems may take the form of a recognisable mental illness but more often appear as emotional or behavioural difficulties, possibly in a number of areas of life. These include problems with forming and sustaining relationships, self esteem, managing feelings and emotions.

Examples of problems we can help with are:

• Loss, bereavement and trauma.
• Challenging or attention seeking behaviour.
• Self harming or risk taking behaviour.
• Placement changes or breakdown.
• Difficulties with family and peer relationships.

What we offer

Therapeutic work

We offer a range of assessments and treatments. These include:

• Specialist assessment of a child’s mental health, with recommendations for treatment.
• Individual counselling and psychotherapy.
• Family therapy (with birth or substitute family).
• Individual work with foster carers about specific issues.

Consultancy and training

We recognise that social workers and other professionals are managing complex situations in their work with look after children and may benefit from a child mental health perspective.

We provide:

• Individual consultation in relation to a particular child or issue.
• Consultations to groups of staff.
• Training for foster carers on managing behaviour.

How are children and young people referred to the service?

We accept telephone referrals from any professional working with the child or young person, as long as the referral has been discussed with the child’s social worker. We are also happy to discuss possible referrals.