Five new CAMHS hubs offering intensive supports to children and young people

Today (Thursday, 7th September 2023), the HSE launches a new service development, with 5 CAMHS Hubs to support CAMHS Teams in delivering enhanced responses to children, young people and their families/carers in times of acute mental health crisis.

Speaking at today’s launch Minister Mary Butler, TD, said:

“The development of this new multi-disciplinary Model of Care and the expansion of CAMHS Hubs nationally has been a priority for me and for the HSE. Support from these Hubs is designed to be over a short period of time, as they provide targeted and intensive intervention and support with flexibility to respond to different young people’s or parent/carer needs. We have worked hard to make sure this service will be child and young person centred, recovery focused and trauma informed.

This is a welcome and significant new service development to advance in particular Recommendation 35 of our Sharing the Vision policy to develop a comprehensive specialist mental health out-of-hours response for children and adolescents in all geographical areas.

I want to acknowledge the immense efforts of all involved in the design and development of this CAMHS Hub Model of Care. These pilot Hubs will provide a number of key improvements to the service, including helping young people and their families with intensive short-term supports to deal with an acute mental health crisis and provide the tools to deal with future issues.”

Yvonne Goff, National Director, Change and Innovation, HSE said: 

“These hubs are a significant development in our journey to improve CAMHS Services. The provision of timely and person-centred support to children, young people and families during times of acute mental health crisis is vital in providing additional person- centred supports.

It is also a key component of the HSE Mental Health Reform plans in the HSE Corporate Plan and it’s aligned to National Strategic policies in Slaintecare and ‘Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone’.

Thank you to the five pilot learning sites for accepting to co-design and pilot implementation of this exciting and innovative initiative and I wish to acknowledge their work and commitment to date. We are also grateful to all the key stakeholders that we engaged with in the design and development of this initiative.”

The New CAMHS Pilot Hubs aims to provide:

• Timely and person-centred support: by offering support in the home or community, the model aims to respond quickly to individuals' needs and empower them on their recovery journey.
• Reducing hospital admission: by providing intensive supports during times of acute mental health crisis, the model seeks to offer an alternative response and reduce the need for inpatient admissions when appropriate. 
• Multidisciplinary team approach: CAMHS Hubs teams will play a vital role in this model by delivering intensive mental health interventions and support in the home and community. These teams consist of professionals from various disciplines who assess the individual's needs and develop an individual care plan tailored to support their recovery journey. This multidisciplinary approach ensures that individuals receive comprehensive and holistic care.
• Learning and evaluation: the pilot implementation of the CAMHS Hub will undergo an independent evaluation over the testing phase of 18-24 months. This evaluation will help assess whether the desired outcomes are being met and inform future development of the service. By continuously learning and adapting based on the evaluation results, the HSE can improve the model and ensure it meets the needs of individuals with mental difficulties.

Both Co-chairs of the National Steering Group, John Meehan, Assistant National Director for Mental Health Operations Planning, and Dr Amir Niazi, National Clinical Lead for Mental Health, added: 

“We would like to thank each member of the National CAMHS Hub Steering Group, who demonstrated ongoing dedication and commitment to this project and who worked hard to enrich the final document with their own perspective and experience. The next stage of testing and piloting this model of care is an important one as it will enable us to learn from implementation and to evaluate if desired outcomes are being met to inform future development of CAMHS Hubs into the future.”