Our children and young people's mental health referral pathway
If you've submitted a referral into Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS), either for yourself or for someone else, you may be wondering what happens next.
We follow a pathway for all referrals coming into CYPMHS - this helps us make sure all children and young people receive the right support and ensure a consistent approach to how we manage all the referrals coming into our service.
We have outlined our referral pathway below as an step-by-step process. You can open out the accordions to find out more about each step of the journey.
The first step of the process is submitted a referral to our Children and Young People's Mental Health Service. We have a dedicated page on the MyMind website where you can find everything you need to know about making a self-referral for either yourself of a young person in your area.
We also receive referrals from health and care professionals like GPs.
Clinicians from Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) meet every day to review new referrals. They carefully look at the information provided in each referral form and assess whether the referral meets our service criteria. They also decide how urgently support is needed, so that children and young people who are most at risk can be seen as quickly as possible.
If at this point, the child or young person doesn't meet the criteria for CYPMHS, we will signpost them to other local services that can better meet their needs.
You won’t need to tell your story over and over though - we work closely with other services to make this easier.
If the young person meets the referral criteria for CYPMHS, they will be offered a Choice Appointment. This is an initial assessment appointment where our mental health workers within CYPMHS will meet with the young person and their family to help understand what’s going on and how we can best support them.
What is a Choice Appointment?
During the Choice Appointment, you'll meet with one of our friendly team. The aim of the Choice appointment is to:
Learn more about the child or young person and the difficulties you are experiencing
Talk about what you and your family need help with
Start thinking about what kind of help might work best for you
You don’t need to prepare anything - just come as you are. You can bring a parent, carer or trusted adult with you.
What could happen after this appointment?
At the end of the Choice Appointment, the young person and their family might:
Decide they don’t need any more help from the service
Be given details of another service that may be more suitable
Choose to continue working with CYPMHS
If they choose to continue, they’ll be offered another appointment with CYPMHS. These ongoing sessions are known as Partnership Appointments.
The first Choice Appointment can take as long as needed to reach a decision that everyone agrees on. When a decision is made, we call this a Choice Point. This means everyone (including the young person and their family) agrees on what the next step should be.
How long will I have to wait for the Choice Appointment?
Waiting times for Choice appointments can vary. We post our average waiting times for CYPMHS on the 'waiting times' page on the MyMind website. These waiting times are updated each month.
Once the young person and their family have agreed on the plan (Choice Point) with Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS), the clinician they met will share this plan with the rest of the team. We call this the Choice debrief.
This is to make sure:
Everyone agrees it’s the best next step
The young person gets the right care and support
The team works together to double-check the plan and make sure nothing is missed.
After meeting with a young person and their family and debriefing with the wider team, the clinician thinks carefully about:
What the young person is going through – their feelings, behaviour, and any problems they’re facing
What usually works – using trusted information and research to guide support
What the young person wants – what kind of help or changes they’re hoping for
Making a plan together – agreeing what should happen next
The clinician will share their thoughts with the wider team and suggest what kind of support or service might best help.
The clinician will write a summary letter within 24 hours, which will be sent to the young person and their family by post and will detail the agreed plan and next steps.
The young person will be offered one of the following:
A series of Partnership appointments with one of our NHS Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) - this could be the 0-18 CYPMHS team, our eating disorder services, or our learning disability services.
Signposting to another service that is better placed to help - sometimes CYPMHS isn't the best service to help. If we think another service can help better, we'll guide you there but you'll never be left without advice or a plan.
Discharge from CYPMHS with advice and recommendations.
The THRIVE model
The Thrive model for children and young people's mental health uses a needs-based approach, categorising mental health needs into five groups:
Thriving focuses on supporting young people to maintain their mental wellbeing through preventative measures and the promotion of positive mental health. It emphasises early intervention and building resilience.
Getting advice and signpositng addresses the need for timely advice and guidance for children, young people, and their families, connecting them with appropriate services and support within their communities.
Getting help provides support for those who need more focused intervention for mental health difficulties. It may involve access to specialised mental health services, such as therapy or counselling.
Getting more help addresses the needs of young people requiring more intensive or specialised support for complex mental health difficulties. This may involve accessing specialist services.
Getting risk support focuses on providing support and interventions for young people experiencing significant risk factors or mental health crisis to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
