Dr. Amanda Burke:

In some areas it is not working particularly well. The CAMHS operational guidance lays out clear criteria for what to do when a young person is transferred over but we all recognise that 18 is very young to be transferring a young person over to the adult services. A recommendation in Sharing the Vision is to extend the youth mental health service up to 25 years. A specific group, which I am on, is looking at those transition pathways in the short, medium and long term. It will give recommendations to next week, I think. We have proposed transition co-ordinators in the short term. We are also looking at the single point of access. We are looking at bolstering, in the initial stages, the clinical programmes to work across the age range because we have clinical programmes on eating disorders and early intervention in psychosis and deliberate self-harm. If those teams are colocated they can work across that age gap. It is really hard for a young person, if they have started therapy with somebody, to be handed over to another therapist. We are hoping to eventually do away with that.