Decision Report 201901698

Summary

C complained about the care and treatment provided by the board’s Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in respect of their child (A). After a number of referrals, A attended an initial appointment with CAMHS. This was due to A’s challenging behaviour. The outcome of this assessment was that A would be further assessed before a conclusion was reached on how to progress.

Between this initial assessment and the point C made their complaint, CAMHS engaged with C and A in a variety of ways. A left the family home and moved in with their grandparent. C felt that CAMHS did not provide the help that they and A needed during this time. In C's view, they had been involved with CAMHS for years but nothing productive had been done. Overall, C felt CAMHS failed to provide appropriate care and treatment for A.

We took independent advice from a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist. We found that overall care and treatment provided by CAMHS was reasonable and in line with relevant guidance for this area. We concluded that the actions taken by CAMHS was reasonable and based on an appropriate consideration of the evidence and A’s presentation. We identified that there were some areas where greater clarity in relation to specialist terms may have been helpful and that there was uncertainty around whether the contents of a risk assessment should have been shared with C. However, we did not consider this to mean that the overall care and treatment provided to A was unreasonable. We did not uphold C’s complaint.