Learning disability & family intensive support services
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are made up of specialist teams offering assessment and treatment to children and young people up to age 18 who have emotional, behavioural or mental health problems.
The CAMHS Learning Disability Family Intensive Support Service provide a specialist service in East Sussex. We work with children and young people up to the age of 19 who have moderate to severe learning disabilities, who are presenting significant behaviours which challenge their families and others in their support network and which may be causing worry or harm to either themselves or others.
We are made up of a range of specialist learning disability and mental health practitioners including clinical psychologists, specialist behaviour support practitioner, consultant psychiatrist, family support practitioners, clinical nurse specialist, occupational therapist and speech and language therapists.
We offer a range of interventions in partnership with other services who know your child. Our team offers specialist assessment, advice and support in thinking about the particular emotional, behavioural, communication and mental health needs of children with a learning disability. We run parent and carer groups and work with children and families in the family home and other community settings.
During our work with you we develop a shared understanding of behaviours that cause concern and may do this by:
- Visiting you at home to listen to your concerns.
- Meeting with other services involved with your child’s care to gain an all-round understanding of their needs.
- Getting to know your child over time to understand their specific patterns of behaviour.
Our shared understanding then informs the development of strategies and approaches that help to enable your child to communicate their needs in different ways and helps to support families to cope with the behaviours that challenge them.
We do this through working with you and others in your child's network. We set specific goals for us to focus on in the work and together we'll develop a way of working that will enable you to manage your child independently.
Our work with families can be quite brief and short-term or sometimes longer term.
We often need supporting information to help us decide whether our service is the right one for your child and their needs. These decisions are made on your child’s level of learning disability, general functioning and level of risk in relation to their behaviours. We will request consent from you to contact others, such as a school or key worker, to gain additional information.
You and the person who referred your child will be contacted with the outcome of any decision. If we are unable to provide a service we will give our reasons and discuss alternative services which may be more suitable.
We work with children and young people up to the age of 19 who have a moderate to severe learning disability, supporting both them and you as a family.
We often need supporting information to help us decide about whether our service is the right one for you. These decisions are made on your child’s level of learning disability. We will request consent from you to contact others, such as a school or key worker, to gain additional information.
You and the person who referred your child will be contacted with the outcome of any decision. If we are unable to provide a service we will give our reasons and discuss alternative services which may be more suitable.
Parents and carers
Contact us directly about accessing our service, or you can ask to be referred to us by a professional. Telephone: 01323 466061 Email: spnt.
Professionals
Contact us directly (as above) about making a referral or download a referral form here. Please ensure that you have obtained consent from the parents/carers before making a referral.
Consultation
When we feel that a child does not meet our referral criteria in relation to level of learning disability, we can provide consultation to the professional network supporting the child. Please contact us and speak to us directly if you are enquiring about consultation.
We aim to work in partnership with you in order to provide a high quality of service to your child and your family. Working in partnership means that we will:
- Come to a shared understanding about your child’s needs and work towards the same aims
- Respect your ideas and views
- Discuss and negotiate treatment plans and goals
- Agree how long we will be working together
Sometimes we work directly with your child in order to gain their views and feelings or to help them understand a situation. Our goal is to enable you to support your child to access opportunities and to participate fully in family life and activities in their local community. We aim to be flexible and respectful in the way we work with all those involved with your child.
We welcome your feedback on your experience of the service you have received. You can do this in a number of ways, including talking directly to us, or via questionnaires completed at the end of working with you. We value your thoughts on what works, what doesn't work and what would work better.
You can contact our team on 01323 446061 any time between 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Messages left on the answerphone will be passed on to a clinician who will contact you directly to discuss a referral or provide other information.