Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and schools: inter‐agency collaboration and communication

Mounting evidence of a crisis in mental health care for young people has underlined the need for early and better recognition of mental health difficulties in children. Recent policy suggests that schools and teachers must play a pivotal role in smoother pathways to care. This will necessitate enhanced working relationships between schools and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). However, there is little understanding as to how teachers and mental health professionals currently relate to one another or what difficulties undermine ‘joined up’ care. In this study we examine current systems of collaboration between schools and child and adolescent mental health services, paying particular attention to relationships between schoolteachers and mental health professionals. Data was collected using semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews. Our findings indicate deep‐seated barriers to good collaboration. Moreover, teachers experience significant frustration through feeling excluded from the mental health care management of children despite being affected professionally by such decisions taken, the delays to intervention and poor communication between agencies. Interprofessional trust and mutual suspicion emerged from these interviews as an over‐arching factor. The implications arising from expectations for greater inter‐agency collaboration are discussed.