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

Dr Helen Smith is keen to continue the work of her predecessor Dr Elaine Lockhart. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) services continue to be under the media and governmental spotlight. The demand for CAMHS support is increasing and whilst there has been some funding for the workforce in CAMHS, child and adolescent psychiatrists remain in short supply with numerous vacancies in our specialty.  The focus of the next few years will be parity of esteem for CAMHS services and to increase the profile and training psychiatry numbers for the future of the profession. We will continue to ask for 1% of the health budget to be spent on the mental health of young people in Scotland.

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:-

Useful links

Read more to receive further information regarding a career in psychiatry