Community CAMHS are services located in local communities which offer specialised assessment and treatment for young people and their families with a range of mental health difficulties.

They are made up of teams of professionals who are trained in the area of mental health, for example – psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and speech & language therapists. To access a CAMHS service you need to be referred by your GP or another doctor.

More information on Community CAMHS at our service is available at this page on our website and on our ‘What is CAMHS?’ page.

Many young people experience distress in their lives and the source of this stress can be things like school, family life or peers. Sometimes mental health difficulties even arise without any noticeable triggers at all. There are many services that are available to help in all of these areas like education services, social services and health services.

CAMHS is part of the Irish health service and is the appropriate service for young people who are experiencing distress as a result of mental illness (like depression) which is of a moderate to severe nature.

Usually young people will have already attended other services like primary care psychology before attending CAMHS. In these cases, the reason for referral is that the primary care professional thinks the young person has needs that cannot be met by their service and that CAMHS might be a more suitable service to meet those needs. It is thought that approximately 1-3% of the young people (under 18 years old) population in Ireland would need to attend a CAMH service.

There are exceptions to this like if a GP believes a young person is experiencing a psychotic illness or has anorexia nervosa they may refer directly to Lucena CAMHS. Many more children (around 20%) may need to attend a service for young people with mild to moderate mental health needs like primary care psychology, Jigsaw Mental health service, counselling, National Educational psychological Service (NEPS) which is linked to schools, therapy, and so on.

Usually a referral to a community CAMHS team is facilitated by your GP or another doctor, and sometimes with support from another identified senior clinician.  

Once a referral had been made, the CAMHS team will sometimes need to find out more information and may phone the family, or the referrer, if greater clarity or detail is needed.

This referral is reviewed by the relevant team and if it is suitable for CAMHS you will be given notice to attend for an assessment with us. This involves a meeting with 1 or 2 members of the CAMHS team, who will take a history of the problem from both the young person and their parents as well ask about what is going well for the young person and what their strengths are.

After this meeting, a decision is made whether further appointments would be helpful. These further appointments can involve one to one sessions with a clinician, group work with other young people with similar difficulties and/or some meetings with a clinician and your family, parents, and/or caregivers.

The CAMHS team consists of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and speech & language therapists. All of these people offer different insights into assessing and treating mental health difficulties and can be called upon to assist in helping many families with various challenges.

More information on the staff member who work on CAMHS teams is available in the ‘Team Members’ section of the website.

There are many issues that can cause distress for young people like learning problems, social problems, behavioural problems and health problems. There are many services available to respond to these issues for young people and their parents like Community Psychology Services, TUSLA, National Educational Psychology Services and local Family Resource Centres.

If the young person’s difficulties are in areas like dyslexia or school refusal then perhaps NEPS is a better service for that.

If the issues are primarily social, in terms of a trauma or financial issues in the family, then perhaps a social service like TUSLA or a Family Resource Centre would be the best option.

CAMHS gets a lot of referrals every year and therefore it is important that the service is targeted towards difficulties where their interventions are unique so as to be most effective.

More information on other services which may be suitable are available in the ‘Other Services’ dropdown below.

There are many people who are referred to CAMHS every day and so there is a high demand for the service. Unfortunately in some incidences, this means that people have to wait for an appointment. If you are awaiting an assessment in CAMHS, your GP may be able to direct you toward some local support services like a parenting group or web support to help you while you are waiting to be seen. If your case is viewed by the CAMHS team to be more urgent, then it will be prioritised.

If you’re not sure CAMHS is suitable for you or your young person, here are some other services you might try:

Jigsaw Primary Care

Jigsaw is an early intervention, primary care service for young people’s mental health. They work with young people aged 12-25. They offer supports to meet the mental health needs of young people across Ireland.

Jigsaw offer a range of accessible mental health supports and services. Their service is designed to be person-centred, responsive, and trauma-sensitive, and their mission is to improve the mental health of young people aged 12-25 throughout Ireland by through providing mental health service services, mental health promotion, public awareness, and advocacy.

You can find out more about Jigsaw by clicking on the link above, and you can contact and find your local Jigsaw here. 

National Educational Psychology Service (NEPS)

NEPS is the psychology service for the Department of Education. Across Ireland, each NEPS psychologist is assigned to a group of schools and works to make sure children and young people’s educational needs are being met. To achieve this, they work with young people, families, teachers, and schools to make sure the right supports are in place. You can get referred to NEPs through your school so talking to your young person’s teacher(s) and principal(s) about their needs is the best way to start. More information is available by clicking on the link.

Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (PDS)

The PDS provide services to parents, young people, children, and their families where a child or young person requires supports around disabilities. If your person is diagnosed with a disability, or you think they might have one, you can find information, advice, and supports for parents through their website by clicking on the link.

Assessment of Need (AON)

AON is a legal process all young people born after 2002 are entitled to use. AON will identify your young person’s health needs and what services are required to meet those needs. It can be very helpful to use AON to figure out a plan of where to go to get any diagnoses and support your young person may need.

Parents, legal guardians, and advocates can apply for AON for their young person themselves and there’s no need to talk or get letters from anyone else like a GP, school, or mental health service (though you might like to). Young People aged 16 or 17 can also apply for their own AON if they want to. All the information you’d need to apply is available at the link.