Posted on: 22 July 2020
CNWL's Adolescent Community Treatment Service (ACTS) is one year old.
The service provides the equivalent of inpatient care to young people & families within their home environment. It covers all five CNWL London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon, and has an staff team equivalent to a ward.
ACTS working alongside Lavender Walk our 12 bed CAMHS inpatient unit in South Kensington and Chelsea Mental Health Centre, with a day programme providing intensive treatment for up to 4 day patients.
Jackie Shaw, Service Director CAMHS said, “The team is an important addition to our Urgent Care pathway and has been a real success. They really helped us to manage our Covid response for young people. The young people this team works with are complex and challenging and would otherwise be admitted to hospital. Thank you for all you do and keep doing it! Well done!”
The ACTS team celebrating its first birthday
It continues to aim to improve outcomes for young people whilst preventing those from being admitted when clinically this is not needed and the young person can be treated at home.
The service provides tailored individualised interventions, informed by evidence based practice, for young people with acute mental health conditions, in the least restrictive manner. They have become experts in the area of risk assessment and conducting ‘home sweeps’ in assessing and formulating risk management plans for families to be able to safely support young people at home during a period of high risk and crisis.
Feedback from young people:
- “I didn’t feel judged for having the problems I did. Nothing I said was dismissed.”
- “It’s definitely been useful”
- “They care.”
Feedback from a father
What was really good about your care?
"The support, help and overall network, around trust, communication, advice and feeling at ease to discuss sensitive topics"
Feedback from a mother
What was really good about your care?
"Everything was good. The fact that I could speak to someone if I needed help was useful."
The team provides a multidisciplinary approach to assessment and treatment. While supporting a young person in the community, they work closely with the referral network to ensure continuity of care.