The 10 Healthwatch in Greater Manchester are undertaking a Pathways to CAMHS project which is researching the mental health and wellbeing of young people and their experiences accessing or trying to access services.
Families across Greater Manchester speak about the challenges they experience trying to access CAMHS services for their child / children. As part of Pathways to CAMHS project, Healthwatch are coordinating discussion sessions in a focus group format to capture the experiences of families across the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester.
Healthwatch Trafford is interested in having a focus group session with parents / carers / guardians that have tried to access or accessed CAMHS support for their child / children. The aim of the focus group session is for parents/ carers/ guardians to share their understanding of the CAMHS pathways, interim support and communication received while waiting for a CAMHS referral.
Healthwatch are inviting parents / carers / guardians that live in Manchester to join an online focus session for 1 hour and 30 minutes sometime before 10 May to share their experiences on accessing or trying to access mental health services for your child / children. The focus group session will be a safe space for parents/ carers/ guardians to share experiences.
Healthwatch are aware that some parents / carers / guardians might not have the time to attend the focus group session due to work, childcare responsibilities and other priories. For these reasons, there is a focus group questionnaire parents / carers / guardians can fill out and returned to us if they wish to contribute to the discussion.
Parents / carers / guardians interested in joining the focus group session or prefer to provide written responses via the focus group questionnaire can contact [email protected] or 0300 999 0303 for further details. A focus group date and time will be set up once interests from parents / carers / guardians come through.
More information about the project
This project is important because Healthwatch know there are long waiting times for young people to be seen and we want to investigate how this is affecting them. Findings will aid decision-makers in statutory NHS and Care services as well as in the education and voluntary sectors, to effectively prioritise services.