In the latest edition of our CAMHSTalk podcast Niki Scott, CAMHS Participation Lead is joined by Shana, Lucy, Safa and Molly for a discussion about participation and coproduction. In a bid to encourage other young people to get involved and have their say, our service users talk about the projects they have been involved in and how they have benefitted from having a platform to share their views and opinions.
Join us for our third and final instalment in our series looking at the effects of COVID 19 and lockdown restrictions on the wellbeing of young people. Following our discussions with Professor Tamsin Ford and Doctor Uttom Choudhury, we ask the young people themselves about what it has been like for them since March 2020. Aisling is joined by Nada, Chloe and Richie to discuss their experiences.
Nada- Assistant Psychologist, Luton CAMHS
Richie- CAMHS service user
Chloe- CAMHS service user
The second in a three-part series discussing the effects of COVID 19 and lockdown restrictions on the wellbeing of young people. Aisling and Ava met Doctor Uttom Chowdhury, an expert consultant child and adolescent psychiatric who specialises in neurodevelopmental disorders and works at CAMHS. We discuss how the pandemic has affected people’s wellbeing with a particular focus on tics and Tourette’s and Uttom shares his words of wisdom and support for families.
The first in a three-part series discussing the effects of COVID 19 and lockdown restrictions on the wellbeing of young people. As lockdown restrictions began to ease, hosts Aisling and Ava were joined by Professor Tamsin Ford, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and an internationally renowned child psychiatric epidemiologist. Listen to find out what all that means, and hear us discuss the data around how the wellbeing of young people has been affected by the pandemic and the support available to young people.
In this episode, we talk about how some of our service users had the opportunity to work with IntoFilm, an organisation who ‘put film at the heart of the educational and personal development of children and young people.’
Over the course of 7 weeks, we attended film making workshops that taught us what is involved in film making, how to develop characters, write scripts and plan our camera shots to produce a film together about mental health. Not Alone follows 3 young people’s different mental health struggles, united by the fact they are not going through them alone. From exam stress, to anxiety, and fear of isolation: the young people all experience varied personal struggles and have different ways of coping. Through exploring these difficult feelings, they realise that they are not alone in these experiences. This film was made as part of the Into Film Moving Minds 2 Filmmaking Project. Young people aged between 11 and 19 were given the opportunity to work with professional filmmakers to devise and create their own short film.
In this episode, Aisling is joined by professionals and young people to discuss the mental health benefits of physical exercise. We discuss the pressure to exercise in lockdown, some of the barriers to exercise we have encountered the past year and the pros and cons of the options that are available to us online.
Today’s episode is hosted by:
Aisling Callaghan – User participation lead for Luton CAMHS
We are joined by:
Jade Horsley who is the Satellite Club Link Officer for Team Beds & Luton
Rob Lindsay, Sports Development Officer for Bedford Borough Council
Racheall Monton, yoga instructor
Claire Rourke- Clinical Trial Manager, Ready Trial, University of Hertfordshire,
Molly- CAMHS service user,
Sam- CAMHS service user.
Links to the organisations mentioned in this episode..
https://camhsspace.crd.co – CAMHS Space – Delivered by Bedford Borough Council in partnership with East London Foundation Trust CAMHS team and supported by Team Beds & Luton
https://www.teambedsandluton.co.uk/what-are-satellite-clubs Satelite Clubs – Team Beds & Luton-Satellite Clubs are physical activity projects which provide inactive young people between 14-19yrs new opportunities to be active in a fun and social environment, helping to create positive experiences and promote active lifestyles.
In this episode, Nikki and Aisling talk to Jay and Suzie – two of our service users about how Autism and anxiety can make the Christmas period difficult. Come and listen to Jay and Suzie share their thoughts and tips on how to manage and make Christmas fabulous..
Cultural diversity and access to services is an issue that is high on the agenda for CAMHS and there is no better way of understanding the needs of the BAME community than hearing directly from the young people that have accessed the service. Today, we are privileged to have four of our ex service users talk about judgement, understanding and how important it is for clinicians to be curious and open to challenging their own beliefs. We also are very happy to welcome Helen Anderson, a CAMHS Clinician based at the Bedford Clinic. Helen has joined the discussion today to further her understanding of the challenges and difficulties that our young service users experience and to discuss the changes that can be made to make the CAMHS service more inclusive and accessible to all.
So, the time has come to start to return to the ‘new normal’. For many students, this is full of many unknowns that could be exciting and something to look forward to, however, for some, it may be an anxiety provoking time, leading to added stress and worry. In today’s episode, we talk to two young people about their experiences of lockdown an we hear about their thoughs of returning to school. We also have on the show today two of the CAMHS psychology assistants, Rachel Mellor and Sevgi Deveci who will be talking about strategies to help manage a successful return to school.
In today’s episode, we’re continuing the conversation about mental health, lockdown and how to manage during this time.. There’s lots of information in the media about what we should and shouldn’t do.. we see statistics.. we’re given direction and advice.. sometimes it sounds clear to us, and sometimes it doesn’t… we see advice change.. sometimes on a daily basis and this can leave us feeling worried, scared or just plain confused.. but on a more positive note, we’re also hearing about new and inventive ways of living life.. people are coming up with ideas that we maybe wouldn’t have thought of before…so it’s true to say that there’s a mix of experiences that people are having about lockdown.
But there’s one aspect of lockdown that we’ve all had to do… We’ve all had to socially isolate and keep to social distancing… which means limited access to friends and family, and our normal ways of socialising are currently off the agenda.. As a result of this, we’ve seen an increased use of social media. Now, there are lots of us that would never have entertained the idea of talking on screen.. but suddenly we’ve all got to grips with video calling, texting and even learning new dances on TacTic (name changed for copyright purposes..!)
and no, the last bit doesn’t apply to me.
But for some of us, our usual ways of managing health, and in particular, mental health may have become difficult to access.. such as taking exercise, going out and meeting people.. and getting access to fresh air. For those of us experiencing this.., daily life can be difficult… and many of us have increased our use of social media to support our wellbeing. In today’s episode, we’re going to explore how to manage mental health within the current climate…and give tips on how to make social media support our wellbeing as opposed to making it worse.
Today we have Nikki Scott, who is the user participation lead for Luton and Bedford CAMHS and is also a co-host on CAMHS Talk. I’d also like to welcome Lawrence Chung who is on the NHS graduate programme and is working an Operational Lead for Bedford CAMHS.Also welcome to our service users, Jay and Gracie