Additional evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee for the inquiry into young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.

By Dr Amani Hasan

The CAMHS LD services have started officially on 01/04/2012 for Wales to improve the mental health for children and young people with Intellectual Disability (ID) i.e. under 18 years, in all the areas. I am the CAMHS LD consultant for the area, managed by CWMUHBCAMHS Network, which include three Local Heath Boards (CWMUHB, Abertawe, Cardiff & Vale with a total population of 1,216,600.

The service consists of one full-time consultant, a band 7 clinical Nurse and a band-3 secretary. 

In June 2017, the band 7 nurse was seconded to another post in the Network without replacement, which causes a disruption to the service. (This is not the first time when a staff was pulled out without a replacement.)

Consideration needs to be made when such a wide geographical area is left to be covered by a consultant alone given the fact that there is not a single psychiatric inpatient bed to admit a Child/Adolescent with Moderate to severe LD in Wales. Saying that, with the nurse presence, not a single child was admitted to any bed in England.

The service needs a psychologist to maintain quality and evidence-based service to this disadvantage population. It is a good service overall but under resourced and the CAMHS LD service has not been given enough attention compared to other Neurodevelopmental disorders or mental illness for children without LD

The service has established links and good relationships with the Adult Intellectual Disability Services across South Wales and the Community Paediatricians. 

12 December 2017