CAMHS Talk

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 th...

Throughout lockdown, Bedfordshire and Luton CAMHS have experimented with running groups virtually. One of the most successful formats has been virtual group creative sessions. These have built on the principles of art therapy and brought young people together to make art via Zoom. In this podcast, the staff and young people involved in a group that ran at the start of the year discuss how the sess...

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 t...

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 C...

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..

Christmas is a time of celebration, a time where most families plan for weeks so that the two or three days of Christmas goes perfectly.. the perfect presents, perfect company and perfect food. Most of us look forward to this festive time, but for some, it's filled with fear and anxiety. In this episode, Nikki talks to Jay and Roshni, two of our service users talk about how celebrations such as Ch...

Welcome to part 3..! 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...

In the second of this 3 part mini series, we continue the discussion.. 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, un...

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 op...

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...

Welcome back to CAMHSTalk,.. Today we’re continuing to explore how CAMHS delivers services during the COVID pandemic. Previously we spoke to Ross Truscott, General Manager of Bedford CAMHS about the service and some of the new developments - including self-referral and the new 24 hour crisis line.  So to continue the conversation..  we’re going to take a look at the Luton service.. with  Linda Hur...

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 wo...

In this episode, we’re talking about mental health, lockdown and how to manage at this time. Lockdown has affected us all and as such, everyone’s daily life has been significantly affected. Our normal daily routines changed overnight and many of the things we took for granted are things we're currently doing without. We’ve seen lots in the media about how and when we can expect things to go back t...

Now.. as we’re all aware, we’re living in strange times due to the COVID pandemic and this has brought some change to the services that are currently offered by Bedford CAMHS. In this episode, Nikki and I are talking to Ross Truscott, General Manager for Bedford CAMHS about the changes that have been made to make sure that CAMHS can continue to deliver the service to those young people and familie...

In this episode, we'll introduce you to Dr Charlotte Bolt and her co-therapist, Ruby (the dog!). this is a great opportunity to find out how animals can enhance treatment for some that struggle to manage with face to face therapy. Come listen as Dr Bolt takes us through how she and Ruby have developed the use of animals in treatment. As a note, not all types of treatment mentioned in this episode...

Today we talk about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, more commonly known as CBT. In this episode we are so grateful to Gemma Douthwaite and Dr Charlotte Bolt who share their insights and demystify the inner workings of this treatment model. As always, we also have our service users, this week we have Lucy and Jay who also share their own knowledge from a service user perspective. We also get to hear a...

Welcome back to part 2 of Uni Life and Mental Health, come join us again as Mia, Roshni, Sam and Ocean continue to share their thoughts and insights about their first few months at University and about how they have managed everything from their mental health to relationships.  They also give excellent advice on what to expect, what you can't predict and how to access the right support for you. Li...

Come take a listen to four of our ex-service users, Mia, Roshni, Sam and Ocean share their thoughts and insights about their first few months at University and hear then talk about how they have managed everything from their mental health to relationships.  They also give excellent advice on what to expect, what you can't predict and how to access the right support for you. Listen in on their disc...

Let's rejoin the conversation and continue to hear about the SWITCH Program where  Dawn Bere, Post 16 Personal Adviser & Enhanced Evidence-Based Practitioner and Christopher Allan – Early Help Professional at Bedford Borough talk with two of their service users, Georgia and Stephen about  ‘The Forgotten Population’ – young people who are not in education, employment or training (or NEET for short)...

Come listen to Dawn Bere, Post 16 Personal Adviser & Enhanced Evidence-Based Practitioner and Christopher Allan - Early Help Professional at Bedford Borough talk with two of their service users, Georgia and Stephen about  'The Forgotten Population' - young people who are not in education, employment or training (or NEET for short). Georgia and Stephen give very frank accounts of how they were supp...

Just to let you know that we're taking a short break over December so that we can support other ventures throughout December. Many of you may already know that December specifically can be a difficult time of year, so we clinicians that are involved with the podcast felt it important to divert our efforts elsewhere for the time being. But don't worry..! We'll be back and will release our next epis...

Navigating local support and services for children with special educational needs can be cumbersome and stressful. Come listen and learn all about the Bedford Borough Local Offer Service that works tirelessly to bring information about what's out there into one easy to access website. We discuss how to access the services and also have first-hand feedback from some of our service users about how h...

A quick request from us at CAMHSTalk - do you use any mental health mobile phone or tablet apps? Which ones? how are they useful? would you recommend any specifically? We are going to do a podcast where we review mental health apps on the show and help you to decide which could be useful to you. We are going to bring together professionals and service users and ask them their views. There are load...

In part 3 we continue the discussions around the need for developing emotional language and where we can support this to happen. We also take a look at not making assumptions about the meaning of expressed emotions such as anger or withdrawal. In the discussion, we also explore generational issues such as parental role modelling and what impacts on our choices around emotional expression. As this...

In part 2 of this episode, we continue the discussion around men's mental health and talk about the difficulties that an autism spectrum condition can add to seeking support from others. We are so privileged to be able to hear first-hand from the panel about how difficult it is to seek out support, be able to trust others and how others can misinterpret this for lack of motivation.