Information for Young People

What is FCAMHS?

The Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (FCAMHS) South West (South), is an NHS service that covers Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

We give advice, signpost to other useful information and give consultation to other professionals.

We only meet directly with a small number of young people for assessment and support. We do not typically meet directly with children, young people, or their families.

What do we do?

We help professionals to understand you, your strengths and needs.

We try to understand why you use the behaviours that you do. We will ask professionals for information about you, including what your opinion is.

We make recommendations to the people working with you, to support you now and in the future. Our advice will be different for every young person because everyone has different needs and goals.

Why am I reading this?

Someone that works with you has asked us for our help, they can tell you more about this if you are unsure.

They have been worried your behaviour may harm other people. They also worry that your mental health, things that have happened to you, or things that are currently happening could be affecting your behaviour.

What does ‘forensic’ mean?

We use forensic psychology. This is about understanding why people use behaviours that could get them in trouble with the law.

We do not use forensic science such as taking fingerprints or try to find evidence to catch people who have broken the law.

We are not the police. Sometimes we work with the police to keep everyone safe, but we do not punish or get people into trouble. We also support many young people who do not meet the police.

Who is in the team?

FCAMHS has a few people in the team that have different skills, such as social work, psychology, occupational therapists, nursing and doctors. Only the ones that could best help you will be involved.

Is FCAMHS just like CAMHS?

We work differently to CAMHS. We do not usually meet with young people and their families directly. Instead of meeting with you, we mostly work with your professionals, to help them support you in the best way.

Do I have to meet FCAMHS?

It is unlikely you will meet with us. We mostly just meet with the people supporting you. We will only ask to meet with you if it would help us to understand you better.

If we do need to meet with you, it is ok to have worries about meeting us. We can meet where you feel comfortable, you can bring something or someone that makes you feel safe. We will listen to you and agree a plan together for the session.

Will FCAMHS talk about me?

We will only talk about you or share documents with the people who work with you.

There may be times that we need to share things with other people, such as:

• asking another team to help you
• if you or someone else is ‘at risk’
• if told to by a judge or police officer (this doesn’t happen often)