East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust – Child and Adolescent Service (ELCAS) – Community Services

ELCAS is a mental health service that supports children and young people, up to age 18th birthday, who are experiencing a range of mental health difficulties. Our ELCAS service covers East Lancashire and consists of a number of different teams including:

•   Community Psychiatric Team
•   Intensive Support Team (IST) including Day Unit
•   Primary Care Team (Primary Mental Health Workers)
•   Integrated Mental Health Team: Youth Justice (IMHT)
•   Responsive and Intensive Support Team (RAIS)
•   Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), based in schools

ELCAS is made up of people from different professional backgrounds that are skilled in working with children, young people and their families and we support professionals who need help and advice. The teams include consultant psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers, mental health practitioners, specialist therapists, risk support liaison practitioners and a team of friendly secretarial and admin staff who will be your first point of contact should you contact ELCAS by telephone.

If you have concerns regarding a child or young person, under the age of 18yrs, you can speak to one of our practitioners via our weekly online drop in sessions please see website for dates and times: https://elht.nhs.uk/services/paediatrics/east-lancashire-child-and-adolescent-services

There is also the opportunity to self-refer into the service via the online self-referral form. You will need to provide as much information on the form as possible to ensure we are the correct service to support you. For more information please check the ELCAS website: https://elht.nhs.uk/services/paediatrics/east-lancashire-child-and-adolescent-services

For general enquires please call ELCAS: 01282 804806

If you need an urgent crisis response please call the LSCFT mental health helpline: 0800 953 0110

Who to contact

Telephone: 01282 804806 01282 804806
Website: https://www.lscft.nhs.uk/healthfacilitation
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Where to go

Name: Burnley General Hospital
Address: Area 3, Level 3
Casterton Avenue
Burnley
Lancashire
Postcode: BB10 2PQ
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Availability

Referral required

Yes

Referral Details

The service can be accessed by a process of referral. ELCAS currently receive referrals from a wide range of people including GPs, children’s social care, paediatricians, other CAMHS teams, school teachers and school nurses. The service does not accept self-referrals.

Referrals other than from health need to be via an open and active CAF to ensure that early intervention and prevention has been addressed before referral into a specialist psychiatry service.

The team is divided into geographical areas covering:

· Burnley & Pendle

· Hyndburn, Rossendale & Ribble Valley (Ribblesdale)

· Blackburn with Darwen

The teams can be contacted directly to gain advice, support or signposting. Please ring the reception number who will be able to redirect your call to the most appropriate Team Co-ordinator.

The service can be accessed free of charge and waiting lists for initial assessments are currently averaging below 6 weeks.

The outcome measures used in the Service are the SDQ’s (Strengths and Difficulties), CGAS (Child Global Assessment Scale), HONOSCA (Health of the National Outcome Scales for Adolescents). We also obtain patient feedback in line with the Commission for Health Improvement

Other notes

The first point of contact for the parent/carer or child/young person to discuss something about their care would be to the practitioner involved in delivering their care. If the service user has any urgent worries or urgent concerns, they are able to call the Team co-ordinator for their geographical team who will be able to assist. Please contact reception on 01282 804806 who will redirect the call to the most appropriate person.

Once referred, the appropriate team will consider whether the child or young person will benefit from the service. The referrer will also be able to contact the service in advance to discuss whether the child or young would benefit from service support.

ELCAS forms a small component of a wider network of CAMHS. CAMHS in its broadest sense covers a wide range emotional health and well-being as well as specialist psychiatry. Primary Health Care, including Health Visitors, School Nurses and GPs, schools and other support services provide an essential early intervention and early support service and these should be used and accessed before referral to ELCAS as a stepped approach to intervention.