Due to the differences in cultures, making a transition from CAMHS to AMHS was said to be like “falling off a cliff edge”. Here are some of the perceptions:
Words used by CAMHS about CAMHS:
More enveloping and embracing a service than AMHS
More wrap-around, integrated, more cosy
Based around the young person’s networks
A more systemic focus, with an emphasis on family work.
CAMHS professionals, whatever their disciplinary background, tend to operate as therapists
greater clinical lead from psychiatry
greater multidisciplinary focus.
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Words used by AMHS about CAMHS
Excessive treatment duration
Unwillingness to close cases.
Generic
Emphasis on family
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Words used by AMHS about AMHS
Greater focus on the individual
More clinically focused
Waiting times for clinical psychology unacceptably long
Centred around mental illness
Very few would say that the medical model is our model
Words used by CAMHS about AMHS
Therapy is largely the function of clinical psychology - often a separate service.
Greater focus on the individual
Amount of therapeutic work offered is very limited
Less accessible
Less social and more medical model
