National success for CAMHS collaborative at Health Service Journal Awards
The continuing transformation of mental health services for children and young people (CAMHS) across the East Midlands has won national recognition with success in the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards.
The East Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative provides community and inpatient services to support the mental health and wellbeing of young people throughout the region.
And it was celebration time at the HSJ Awards ceremony in London when the collaborative was named winner of the Provider Collaboration of the Year prize, seeing off strong competition from around the country.
HSJ's judging panel commended the collaborative's continuing progress to improve community mental health services for young people across the region, praising an outstanding project tackling a crucial area, driven by ambition, passion and dedication.
With Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) as its lead provider, the East Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative was set up to support closer partnership working - involving service users and their families - between CAMHS providers in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
Aiming to tackle long waiting times and difficulties accessing the right support, the collaborative has developed a shared set of agreed aims to bring CAMHS care closer to people's homes, improve the support available in the community and reduce the need for young people to be admitted to inpatient care.
Since its launch in 2021, the collaborative has reduced inpatient admissions by 65% and introduced new initiatives to improve experiences and outcomes for young people and their families. Just one example is the creation of the Family Ambassador service, which works closely with families and carers to provide support and advocacy across the region's five inpatient units.
Accepting the award at the HSJ Awards ceremony were Simon Harris, Director of New Care Models for the East Midlands CAMHS Collaborative, and Clinical Lead Dr Sachin Sankar.
Simon said: "This award is testament to the incredible effort, focus and determination of everyone involved in the collaborative, which we at NHFT are proud to lead. From the beginning we have shared an ambition to make things better for children and young people throughout the East Midlands and we are delighted to have achieved national recognition for the progress we have made together."
Sachin added: "We were thrilled to accept this award as leaders of the East Midlands CAMHS Collaborative and would like to pay tribute to the hard work of all our partners - from service users and families to clinicians, providers and commissioners - for making this achievement possible. We are determined to build on the progress we have made so far and continue to deliver better outcomes and experiences for the communities we serve."