National Assembly for Wales

Children, Young People and Education Committee

CAM 26

Inquiry into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Evidence from : Mental Health Directorate - Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

Thank you for giving our service the opportunity to contribute to the above inquiry.  I have discussed this with colleagues from the Mental Health Directorate within our Health Board and would like to highlight the following two areas.

The first is a specific concern about the ongoing use of Adult Mental Health wards for the placement of adolescents with mental health problems.  This is a particular concern in our Health Board which has a significantly higher incidence of this when compared to other areas.  The current activity is shown below.  We do need to understand why our Health Board has such high levels of admissions and a joint workshop is being convened by the CAMHS service.

2012-13

Incident Type	AB	ABMU	BCU	CT	C&V	HDd	Powys
Inappropriate admission	0	2	6	0	2	1	1

2013-14 (April to December 2013)

Incident Type	AB	ABMU	BCU	CT	C&V	HDd	Powys
Inappropriate admission	3	14	1	0	1	4	1

The second issue we would like to raise is around patient definitions relating to those who should be seen in primary and secondary care.  We have quarterly interface meetings with our CAMHS service and often discuss the different understandings about patient definitions for people who require secondary care services and therefore Care and Treatment Plans.  This has an impact on the delivery of services under the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010.

Gill Thornton

Acting Clinical Director, Mental Health

cc.      Dr Ed Roberts

Alexandra Howells

          Robert Goodwin

          Grace Sansom

          Dr Claire Ball

          Paul Davies

          Joanna Williams