30 April 2024

Brent CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) has been shortlisted for a Design in Mental Health Award, in the category Low Cost – High Impact.

The project has been able to streamline how children and young people are started on medication for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD).

In collaboration with the Neurodevelopmental team, colleagues developed an electronic platform (e-platform) to educate parents about medication for ADHD, wanting to reduce waiting times and the time to treatment.  

The e-platform includes psychoeducation videos featuring neurodevelopmental clinicians, as well as additional question-and-answer sections, useful websites and an e-form where parents can indicate their choice to start medication.

The videos also have subtitles in Arabic, Gujarati and Romanian.

The e-platform has been embedded on the Brent CAMHS website since December 2023. Have a look at the link below:

Welcome to our ADHD Medication Initiation e-Platform

Using the Trust’s quality improvement programme, the team involved parents and service users throughout the project. Service users revealed they found the platform ‘easy to understand’, ‘easy to access, quick and useful’ and ‘provided clear explanations’.

The results showed:

  • The time to treatment initiation reduced by 51 percent (from 88 days to 42 days)
  • The number of children and young people started on medication increased from 64 percent to 70 percent
  • Over a two-month period, nine hours of clinician time was saved

The nomination form reads:

“The e-platform empowers parents and guardians with knowledge, enhances communication between families and the neurodevelopmental team, and ultimately expedites ADHD medication initiation and saves clinical time”.

The team has started discussions to spread this initiative further, with CNWL’s Westminster CAMHS now adopting the approach too. 

The team won first prize at the Royal College of Psychiatrists Better Data Better Care Conference for the project.

You can read more in this poster (opens PDF)