Rosie Morshead

Care-experienced children and young people (CECYP) refers to individuals who have been looked after by the local authority at any point in their life, for any length of time. CECYP have higher rates of mental health problems compared to the general youth population. They face adversities such as abuse, neglect and poverty, which impact their mental health. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines state that clinicians should understand the impact of trauma on care-experienced children and respond appropriately. The experiences of CECYP are not always well understood and this can mean it is harder for those children to engage with mental health support, leading to further harm and delayed treatment. Understanding the impact of trauma is essential to improving CECYPs experience of services, particularly as assessments themselves can be traumatic for service users.   

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This project aims to develop guidelines to support practitioners completing mental health assessments in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with CECYP living in foster care and residential care. As the first point of contact, the initial assessment is a crucial opportunity for relationship-building and can impact a young person’s overall experience of services. Assessments are also used for identifying mental health needs and developing treatment plans, which means the experience of the initial assessment can determine how the child continues to access available supports. 

Currently there are no guidelines for conducting mental health assessments with CECYP. The guidelines developed through this project will support practitioners to assess CECYP using a trauma-informed approach, meaning it will support practitioners to prevent re-traumatisation, understand the link between trauma and mental health, and prioritise the building of positive, trusting and collaborative relationships. ​​

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The preparatory fellowship will establish advisory groups of CAMHS care-experienced service users, carers, and clinicians to

ensure lived experience knowledge shapes the research from the start of the research. It will also include a scoping review exploring care-experienced children and young people’s experiences of mental health assessments internationally. This work will support PhD bursary applications and lead to a publication.   

The resulting PhD study will address the gap in knowledge and practice about trauma-informed improvements to CAMHS initial assessments for care-experienced children. Participatory co-design methods will be used to identify priorities and understand the potential impact of the work. Interviews with care-experienced young people who have accessed CAMHS will explore their experiences of initial assessments and what would help make them more supportive. Insights from these interviews will inform the co-design of an assessment framework, which will form the basis of trauma-informed practice guidelines. By involving CECYP throughout, the project aims to develop guidelines that meaningfully shape how clinicians conduct initial assessments and strengthen young people’s engagement with ongoing support.

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