Family ambassador service
This service will be live from May 2023.
Who are we?
Family Ambassadors provide peer support for parents and carers of children who need highly specialised (usually inpatient) mental health care.
Family Ambassadors have themselves parented a child who has needed inpatient mental health care in the past.
How do we work?
As soon as possible after referral to Tier 4 (usually inpatient) CAMHS, Family Ambassadors aim to contact you to support you through the initial stages of your child’s assessment, and where relevant, admission.
They will then offer support through the admission until discharge. Most of their support is provided via phone calls or Microsoft Teams calls, depending on your preference.
Our aims
- Provide emotional and practical support before and during transition to a Tier 4 service.
- Support parents/carers to enable co-production of the care plan, team formulation process and positive behaviour support planning.
- Explain the purposes of different meetings.
- Explain legal processes that families may come across.
- Help parents/carers to understand the roles of the multidisciplinary team.
- Help with application for and the processes surrounding education, health and care (EHC) assessments.
- Support Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independent Payments (PIP), and travel claims.
- Provide pre-meeting support and preparation.
- Provide post meeting support and information.
- Support during transition if higher levels of support in a different unit are needed for the child or the young person they care for.
- Help with early identification of concerns: support to resolve these and build confidence in their ability to work alongside the clinical team as a partner in care.
- Help with practical issues to ensure routine medical/dental care continues.
- Provide general emotional support throughout the admission process.
- Provide written information about a variety of topics as needed.
What happens after my child is discharged?
The family ambassador will work with parents and carers to prepare for the ending of the family ambassador contact.
The Regional Family Ambassador will arrange for a follow-up call (if you agree to this) so that you can offer feedback about the service.
