CYP IAPT, MindEd and other opportunities to promote the mental health of young people leaving care

Dr Cathy Street, National Children’s Bureau (NCB) Research CentreMarch 4th 2014

Overview

A brief overview of three current programmes that aim to promote children and young people’s mental health:

Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – CYP IAPT

Minded – new e-learning portal GP Champions - a pilot project supported by Youth Access

and the Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH)

Why it’s important to think about the mental health of care leavers?

An important life transition – and often one where young people experience difficulties accessing services

Well documented that children and young people in care show higher rates of mental health problems than other children and young people

Study by Ford et al (2007) reported that 45.3% of 5-17 year olds looked after by local authorities had some form of psychiatric disorder; similar figures noted in the CAMHS National Review (DH and DCSF 2008)

CYP IAPT

National programme - originally run by Department of Health and now NHS England

Aims to transform Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – in particular, to improve access to psychological therapies

Policy context – the focus on evidence-based practice, outcomes monitoring, patient choice and participation

Now in year 3 with aim to cover 60% of all CAMHS Builds on existing services – does not create new standalone

IAPT services (so unlike adult IAPT)

How CYP IAPT works

5 geographical locations or “Learning Collaboratives”: North East, Yorkshire and Humber; South West; London and the South East; Oxford & Reading and the North West – Salford, Manchester, North and Central Lancashire

Each learning collaborative has 1-2 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who provide a range of 1 year training courses – in CBT, parenting, Systemic Family Therapy (SFT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), leadership and supervision

Each collaborative is made up of CYP IAPT partnerships who link to the HEI – groups of services including CAMHS teams, LAs, voluntary sector services (e.g. counselling services)

A focus on evidence based practice

Offers training with ‘backfill’ for staff released to go on either a trainee, supervisor or managers course

Infrastructure support for IT (since outcomes are monitored on a session by session basis), children and young people’s participation and accreditation

Idea is that trainees cascade out the learning, thereby supporting change across services/whole staff groups

Sharing of learning and expertise promoted across partnerships and collaboratives, with variety of national groups underpinning this (e.g. national curriculum group)

How young people leaving care might benefit?

More accessible services, with more active involvement of young people and emphasis on ‘listening to young people’

Young people share their views nationally about what they think the priorities for CAMHS should be… and these have included improving transitions/supporting young people when they leave services

Continued opportunities for young people to get involved to support service development

Self-referral also being promoted through CYP IAPT… less hoops to jump through to get help when needed

MindED

A new e-portal providing an extensive array of e-learning sessions about children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing

Funding from the Department of Health/NHS England, with development support via the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and e-LfH (e-learning for health)

Portal launches this month, on Tuesday 25th March

Portal structure

What the e-learning sessions cover

Portal will offer over 200 e-learning sessions (designed to take about 30 minutes to complete)

Written for both universal and specialist audiences Wide range of topics including: children and young people’s

rights; relevant legislation; participation; mental health problems and treatment approaches; outcomes monitoring; understanding child development; different treatment approaches and ways of working

Will provide links to other learning materials – reports, useful websites, organisations etc

GP Champions Pilot project running in 10 areas of England that aims to

transform the way that public services are delivered to young people aged 11-18 years

Collaboration between GPs and voluntary youth services including shared learning sets

Draws on the evidence of young people’s preferred access routes

Development of new models – e.g. GP surgery sessions in youth counselling services; new models of outreach support

Aims to influence local commissioning and planning of services

How young people leaving care might benefit

Improved local offer of services Raised GP awareness and understanding of young people’s

needs Service planning that is better attuned to young people’s

concerns, informed by their active participation

More information

For CYP IAPT, www.myapt.org.uk provides resources and information to support practitioners, discussion forums and dedicated section for young people. Register via the site for regular e-bulletins and event information

Information about MindEd is available from www.rcpch.ac.uk/minded

For GP Champions, go to www.youthaccess.org.uk and www.youngpeopleshealth.org.uk