04/03/04 - Developing Children's Mental Health Services in Cumbria

On Monday 8 March, Cumbria County Council hosts a conference aimed at staff working for various child supporting agencies to raise awareness of mental health well being for children and young people.  The conference will be held at Rheged, Penrith.  It aims to improve partnership working across agencies ensuring the delivery of effective services to improve the lives of Cumbria’s children and young people.

The emotional well being and good mental health of children is central to their development.  Children who are unhappy and troubled will not be able to learn at school, make and keep friendships or enjoy positive relationships with the adults who care for them and are important in their daily lives.

Recent research suggests that about 20% of all children will experience some kind of emotional difficulty at some point in their lives.  Problems might arise because of a whole range of reasons and not everyone will need the help of specialist child mental health services.  Often, a little extra help at school or a support group, which aims to help the whole family, will be enough to sort the problem out. A small number of children will need the support and guidance of the specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) The service has three local teams staffed by a number of different professionals from health and social services.  These teams not only provide treatment for our most troubled children and young people but they also have a valuable role in supporting other agencies and services by providing advice, consultation and training.

County Councillor John Mallinson, Cabinet spokesman for care and Social Services says,

“Over the last decade, the government has realised that services to support the mental health of children and young people needs additional funding and resources.  More recently extra money has been available to develop and expand services.  This expansion has been partly about strengthening the existing specialist child mental health teams but also about supporting the development of emotional support services in communities and voluntary projects, as well as education and social services.  This conference aims to inform people working in different settings of the broader national agenda for expanding services across agency boundaries for the benefit of children, young people and their families.  It will look at some of the challenges involved and celebrate some local achievements.  The conference will emphasise the importance of everyone working in partnership to deliver effective services that will improve the lives of all children.”

The key- note speaker for the conference is Bob Foster from the Department of Health.  Bob is the Government’s National Lead for this significant policy area.