Developing a tier I CAMHS foundation course: report on a 4-year initiative

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health
• Public Health Initiatives
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• The strategic importance of Tier 1 mental health support for children and young people in the UK is increasingly recognized.
• Detailed descriptions of the development and content of Tier 1 training programs are lacking.
• National initiatives aim to address these gaps in mental health support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To contribute authors' experiences to the national effort of developing Tier 1 mental health training.
• To highlight challenges in creating large-scale, multi-agency training in socially deprived areas with high mental health needs.
• To propose innovative solutions for balancing training quality, accessibility, and resource constraints.

Main Methods:

• Exploration of challenges in developing volume multi-agency trainings.
• Consideration of competing needs: quality, Tier 1 penetration, staff time, and manager release.
• Detailed illustration of a teaching session to present the authors' methodology.

Main Results:

• A tentative core syllabus for Tier 1 training is suggested.
• Additional skills components for training are proposed.
• A specific teaching session methodology is detailed to exemplify the approach.

Conclusions:

• Innovation is crucial for effective Tier 1 mental health training development.
• Addressing challenges in deprived areas requires balancing multiple practical constraints.
• The proposed syllabus and methodology offer a framework for enhancing youth mental health support training.