This quality improvement programme brings together
professionals from health services, social services, education and
the voluntary sector, in order to improve the specialist provision
of ‘Tier 2 and 3’ Child and Adolescent Mental
Health Services (CAMHS).
Background
Children and adolescents with mental disorders
need special care and intervention, which may be provided across
four ‘tiers’ of service. ‘Tier 2 and 3’ CAMHS are varied in
structure and are physically dispersed. ‘Tier 2’ input is
provided by uni-professional groups of mental health professionals
such as psychologists, psychiatrists, or increasingly now primary
mental health workers. ‘Tier 3’ provision responds to particularly
complex needs and involves multi-disciplinary working between
mental health professionals.
The Quality Improvement Network for
Multi-Agency CAMHS (QINMAC) was established in 2005. One of
its purposes is to continue the networking function of FOCUS,
a project to disseminate best practice in CAMHS. QINMAC aims to
facilitate quality improvement and development in Tier 2 and 3
CAMHS, through a supportive peer-review network. This
professionally-led network is designed to enable communication and
the sharing of best practice between services. Part of QINMAC’s
focus is on the extent to which Tier 2 and 3 CAMHS work with other
services and agencies to deliver high standards of care for
children, young people and their families.
Funding
QINMAC has been established with initial
funding from the Department of Health and the Gatsby Charitable
Foundation. The remaining cost of running the network is paid
for by members’ subscription fees. It is anticipated that the
network will be fully funded by members’ fees by 2010. QINMAC
is a not-for-profit initiative.
The Partners
QINMAC is working in collaboration with
the following partners:
- The Royal College of Nursing;
- YoungMinds;
- The National Institute for Mental Health in England’s National
CAMHS Support Service (NCSS);
- The CAMHS subgroup of the Mental Health Network, NHS
Confederation;
- The Welsh Assembly Government
- The Scottish Executive
- The Association of Child Psychotherapists
- CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC)
Methods
QINMAC uses a method that combines the
clinical audit cycle with peer reviews. Participating teams
rate themselves against the QINMAC Service Standards via an annual
process of self and peer review. This model aims to facilitate
incremental improvements in CAMH services.
The following charts demonstrate teams’
compliance with the QINMAC Standards over time:
Membership of the network
provides
- A set of Service Standards for ‘Tier 2 and 3’
CAMHS
- A detailed team evaluation and report - see a sample
report
- A service-wide report (where applicable) - see a sample
service report
- An organised visit to another Specialist CAMH service
- A report of aggregated findings to enable benchmarking with
other services
- Regular newsletters
- Membership of the QINMAC email discussion group
- An invitation to the Annual Forum - see our member's area for details of this year's
forum
- A certificate of participation
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QINMAC Service
Standards
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QINMAC Annual
Report 2008
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Click on the links below for more
information