Will the Minister detail why Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has so few children and young people on its children and adolescent mental health services waiting lists, compared with other local health boards?
As part of its mental health service transformation, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) has implemented a single point of access (SPOA) and has integrated assessment arrangements for primary and secondary child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The key aim of this transformation is to improve access for children and young people to the range of mental health support that the health board provides, and to improve the triage into other services where required. This helps to ensure that, at the earliest opportunity, children and young people are referred to the most appropriate support for their mental health and emotional wellbeing needs, recognising that for many children their mental health needs will require a spectrum of support across a range of clinical and non-clinical settings.
However, this integration of services has made reporting against the separate waiting time targets for primary care CAMHS and specialist CAMHS more complex. Officials are working with the health board to resolve this issue.
Currently, this means that all SPOA referrals are recorded as the waiting times within Part 1 and Part 2 of the Mental Health Measure statistical returns. The following links are provided for your information:
- Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010
- Mental Health Measure (StatsWales)
The smaller number of young people requiring specialist care for their treatment (e.g. for a psychiatrist appointment) and the allocation of a Care Co-ordinator are captured in the SCAMHS referral statistics. I also include the following links for your information:
- Specialist Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service first appointment waiting times
- First appointment waiting times (StatsWales)
The BCUHB Specialist CAMHS published data on Stats Wales includes a caveat highlighting that the model of provision in BCUHB differs to other health boards through providing a SPOA into a single mental health support model delivering either primary or secondary CAMHS treatment.