CAMHS – Matters

Maintaining the momentum towards excellent services for children and young people’s mental health November 2007

This report aims to:

• raise awareness amongst the board members of both commissioning and providing organisations about the challenges facing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and to highlight the present window of opportunity for leaders to respond to these challenges
• illustrate the long-term benefits of comprehensively meeting the mental health needs of children and young people, both to the individuals and families concerned, and to public services and the economy as a whole over that individual’s lifetime
• show both commissioners and providers what they can actively do, under existing governance arrangements, to ensure that the recent momentum of progress in CAMHS is not lost, and that their area builds upon these foundations.