Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
The Child and Adolescent Faculty has a membership of around 300 psychiatrists across Scotland.
Our executive meets four or five times per year. We also hold an AGM in association with an Academic Conference in November.
Current issues under discussion include:
- Resourcing and manpower
- Inpatient adolescent services
- Transitions to adult services
Should you wish to view previous Executive or AGM Minutes please contact Susan Richardson.
If you are a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and would like to raise any issue, please do not hesitate to contact the current Chair or Vice Chair:
Chair: Dr Helen Smith (if you wish to contact the Chair, or Vice Chair as below, please email the College)
Vice Chair: Dr Kandarp Joshi
National TPD: Gordon Wilkinson
Message from new Faculty Chair
As background, Dr Helen Smith came to Scotland in 1992 and considers herself as a naturalised Dundonian. She is currently working in NHS Ayrshire and Arran to develop the National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Unit. She is dual trained in Forensic and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has worked in NHS Tayside and Glasgow as a Forensic Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. She has worked in adolescent inpatient care and Tier 3 community CAMHS teams so has a good understanding of the difficulties faced by colleagues.
Secondment opportunities
Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board
An opportunity has arisen for an experienced colleague to replace Dr Elaine Lockhart in advising the Scottish Government's Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board. This role is provide information and guidance to the boards. This opportunity is for two sessions a week. It is not for a fixed term but probably for a period of 2 years. You should have agreement from your Health Board before expressing an interest in the role. Dr Lockhart would be happy to speak to any interested colleagues via email. Additionally, if interested, parties could contact the College directly or Dr Helen Smith (Chair of the RCPsychiS CAP Faculty).
Faculty Conference 2020
This event was the first RCPsych in Scotland online conference with interesting presentations from Dr Ming Lim, Dr Ruairidh McKay and Professor Tamsin Ford. Please see their slides as below for your information and reference.
PANS and PANDAS – Assessment and Treatment: Dr Ming Lim
PANS and PANDAS – Assessment and Treatment: Dr Ruairidh McKay
Epidemiology in CAMHS results from the National Survey: Professor Tamsin Ford
The Scottish Faculty's AGM also took place during the annual conference. View the outgoing Chair's Report.
Message from the Faculty – COVID-19 Guidance
We hope you are keeping well and wanted to share resources and seek your feedback about our annual meeting. We also wanted to bring some things to your attention. It's been an extraordinary few weeks and many of us have been asked to radically change how we carry out our clinical work. Along with anxiety about the health of our loved ones, patients, colleagues and ourselves, we have been dealing with home life being transformed by children being off school, partners working from home and vulnerable relatives in social isolation. Technology has become our friend and being a slow adopter, we have been really impressed with options which have allowed us to review our patients in their homes and have virtual meetings with colleagues and can see COVID-19 pandemic as leaving us with at least one helpful legacy for our work.
- Please view guidance for children and young people and those caring for them about COVID-19 and how to help those who might be more vulnerable which was developed with colleagues from different agencies.
- Before the pandemic there were gaps in the Scottish CAMHS medical workforce and if colleagues who retired during the past 3 years are willing and able to support services, please contact your local Clinical Director or Lead Clinician to discuss this.
- We are needing 2 External Advisors for Consultant appointment committees, preferably from the North of Scotland. Contact Angela Currie at the College if you are interested.
- Finally, we will be more aware than most that many families with children or adults with neuro-developmental conditions including Learning Disability and mental health disorders will be having a tough time of it. If you or some under utilised young people in your house or community are interested in supporting vulnerable people in your community, you might find the "Viral Kindness" flyer of use.
Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board
This is jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA and will run up to the end of 2020. It has replaced the Children and Young People's Mental Health Taskforce which was chaired by Dr. Dame Denise Coia who very sadly passed away in early 2020, leaving behind a huge legacy.
The Programme Board is focusing on 4 strands of work regarding children and young people's mental health (universal services, community based support, specialist CAMHS and neurodevelopmental pathways) and is supported by work improving data collection, developing a digital platform for resources and services, workforce development, crisis services and improving the interface between CAMHS and primary care.
Further information is available online or can be accessed by contacting Elaine Lockhart.
Annual Conference and AGM 2019
Please see available presentations from the conference:-
- Anorexia Nervosa and Autism Spectrum Disorder: is there a link and what it means for the clinical practice Professor Kate Tchanturia, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London.
- Facilitating the transition of young people on the autism spectrum through health services from childhood to adulthood: findings from the Transition research programme Jeremy Parr, Professor of Paediatric Neurodisability, Newcastle University.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Criminal Justice System Dr Clare Allely, Reader in Forensic Psychology, Salford University, Manchester.