STICK team – Early help CAMHS
The STICK team is the Early Help CAMHS service for young people aged 5-18 registered with a Birmingham GP.
The STICK team aim to offer mental health advice, consultation, assessment and intervention, at an early stage of a young person's journey with emotional/mental health concerns. The team aim to offer practical support for young people that reduces the distress they are experiencing and in turn, reduces the likelihood of them needing support from secondary mental health services in the future.
A consultation is a professional-to-professional discussion regarding the mental health presentation of a young person. This is facilitated by two experienced mental health clinicians from the STICK team; during the 15-minute consultation the STICK team will offer targeted advice and support that may involve sharing resources, specific signposting, practical advice for support and on occasion the STICK team may offer an assessment to the young person.
Any professional working with a child registered with a Birmingham GP or attending a Birmingham school can seek a consultation with the STICK team. Please note however that STICK can only work directly with young people who are registered with a Birmingham GP.
To book a consultation with one of our team, please email bwc.stickftb@nhs.net
Some young people may be offered an early mental health assessment (previously known as a screening) from the STICK team. An assessment will usually be carried out online, however depending on the needs of the young person may be completed in school or at the young person's home.
Assessments are completed with one mental health practitioner from the STICK team and usually take an hour to an hour and a half. The young person and their parent/carer will be asked several questions and given the opportunity to express their concerns about their current worries and struggles as well as what is currently going well for them.
The outcome of an assessment may be practical advice and guidance, signposting to a more appropriate service, referral to an appropriate service or an offer of brief intervention from the STICK team.
There is not currently a direct referral route for non-mental health professionals to refer to the STICK team. All referrals to STICK come via the Consultation clinic, FTB referral management centre, PAUSE, Mental Health Support Teams and BCH A&E.
The STICK team offer a variety of brief interventions, which can be:
- Brief group work sessions (usually 3-4 sessions)
- Group parent/carer sessions (NVR usually 10 sessions over 10 weeks)
- Individual intervention sessions (usually 6 – 8 sessions) can include work on specific mental health difficulties, we also offer Youth work engagement sessions to support young people to access help
- Individual parent/carer sessions (up to 6 sessions)
Interventions offered to Young people and parents / carers are specifically formulated from the Early mental health assessment. During the assessment the mental health professional will have taken into account the current concerns and support that is needed and used a psychological formulation to devise the next steps care plan which will outline the intervention that will be offered.
The STICK team have created toolkits for non-mental health professionals to use with young people. The toolkits have been created to be used over several sessions (usually 6) and include Psychoeducation and coping strategies with the differing mental health/ emotional health difficulties.
These can be downloaded from this page for your use. You can seek a consultation with the team if you wish for further support to use any of these toolkits.
How to turn that frown upside down.pdf
Resilience and Self-esteem (Secondary).pdf
Self-esteem (Primary) - Add on.pdf
Youth Work Mental Health Workshops
STICK's Youth Mental Health Team is running workshops in primary schools and high schools in Birmingham for parents and young people, offering early help and mental health support. The workshops teach young people about mental health awareness and give them the tools to support their mental health both inside and outside of school, from learning about sleep hygiene to online safety.
If you are a professional at a Birmingham-based primary or secondary school, you can request a workshop via the Mental Health Youth Work Request form. Please complete the form and send to: bwc.stickyouthwk@nhs.net
Want to know more? Take a look at our latest feedback:
"The workshops were fantastic - they offered practical techniques and advice to our young people, and their parents for building resilience and supporting mental health in high school.
The young people got a lot out of it; they've taken on board the advice and have asked about more workshops in the future. During the pandemic, young people missed out on a lot of this preventative work. With everything that's happening in the world, it's so important we discuss mental health to not only normalise it but to offer practical steps for improving wellbeing.
Schools often act as the first line of defence, so this kind of early intervention is vital. It's so important that young people know we are open to talk about mental health and that we're here to help.
We had a lot of interest in these workshops, and the parents found them so helpful. It opened up a conversation about mental health and allowed parents to ask questions and seek support. We're really thankful to STICK for these workshops. They are a great team, and the parents, teachers and students really benefitted from their visit."
-Rhonda Marynowski, School Counsellor for Ninestiles Academy in Acocks Green, Birmingham
Who do I contact for further information?
For more information about the STICK team and how to get access contact bwc.stickftb@nhs.net