The Department of Health has released a best practice guide for Improving Access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Oxfordshire CAMHS has been chosen as one of the case studies.

The guide highlights the best performers nationally who have managed to reduce waiting times whilst improving the quality of services. It showcases the good work done in Oxfordshire by Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (OBMH) together with Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust where waiting times have been reduced from over a year to appointments offered in less than 4 weeks for children needing help with their mental health problems. This has been done whilst improving patient satisfaction rates with services, and giving children and families much greater choice about where and when they want to be seen.

Yvonne Taylor, Service Director at OBMH, said

“We are delighted at being recognised nationally for the work we have done to improve access to mental health services for children and young people in Oxfordshire. This guide is a great tool for people involved in the delivery of child mental health services and we hope that sharing the kind of innovative approaches we have taken in Oxfordshire will improve child mental health services elsewhere in the UK.”