CAMHS Websites – Secret Shopper

16th January 2015

Introduction

We were asked to look at whether CAMHS websites contained information about complaints

As we were doing this, we thought we’d extend this and look at what information CAMHS websites have for young people –both about CAMHS and about children and young people’s mental health issues

We took the list of CAMHS partnerships in CYP IAPT, chose an equal number from each wave and our Young Sessional Workers agreed to look at them

Some YSWs took more than their allocated partnership –doing more work – and looked at those sites also

Overall, we looked at 59 out of the 82 CYP IAPT partnerships

The Approach:Mystery Shopping

What is it?

Mystery shopping

• A social research tool

• Measure the quality of a service

• Gather opinion about a service

• Mystery shopper’s identity not known by the service being evaluated

• Mystery shopper performs specific tasks such as purchasing a product, asking questions, behaving in a certain way

• Provides feedback about their experiences

Advantages and Disadvantages to Mystery Shopping

• Can provide a better understanding of the user perspective

• Limited to assessing services, cannot advise on what needs to change

• Limited short-term involvement

• Recruiting, training and supporting mystery shoppers is labour intensive

• Resources to reward or recognise

• Potential to be dangerous or unethical

So.......

• We don’t want to put children and young people in a position where they are impersonating or feigning difficulties

But – could they go as far as

• Looking for information on the internet – is it there? Is information about CAMHS accessible and easy to find?

• Phoning up for information - what happens?

• What are the links between schools and CAMHS?

• The environment

So, we did!

• Method

Please use 'Google' as your search engine.

Please use the phrase 'mental health services in [insert partnership name]‘

Questionnaire set up on surveymonkey which YSWs completed as they looked at the websites

The sites we examined:

The first page.

…had to search for

children’s mental health services in…

then it came up with a massive list of

contacts – YP wouldn’t know where to start

…website completely

adult orientated..

…was labelled as children’s community services…

The first page:

Getting beyond the first page:

‘everything was aimed at

adults’

Average number of clicks to find

information about CAMHS is 2.74

CAMHS Pages

A text cloud of the comments made about the CAMHS pages

Produced more for professionals where to refer

people

Split up into sections for children for teens and for parents. Looks fab!

Professional but lacking

warmth /care

The use of tier three and not even really

explaining what that was. Use of 'severe' as

well is both kind of degrading and

excluding. where do moderate people go?!

Would they realise they need early

intervention?

PDF's to download.

The ’looks fab’ website: Bolton

Information on the CAMHS pages

The ‘very good’ information about children and young people’s mental health issues (Ealing)

Information about CAMHS

There are some things that make a website not seem that young-person friendly

• Using acronyms and words YP will not understand i.e multidisciplinary• Only says what problems they help with. A young person might not

understand this language. Nothing about symptoms etc. • Doesn't look like young people have been involved in making the

webpage. Formal. Block texts.• seems to be aimed only at professionals- mention of tiers and

commissioning• Loads of good information, but the website is very confusing as the there

are loads of metal health teams depending on georaphical area, type and severity of illness so there is loads of links- i found the website very confusing and hard to navigate

• clearly aimed at adults• Not a lot of information• Aimed at adults. • Definitely aimed at the parents of the child.• Address and contact details only• Basic, not aimed at young people. • Chance to get artwork on the website.

But, there are things that make a website seem young-person friendly

• Designed by service users • Says about celebrities who have had mental health problems- really

thought about the info young people want to know. • Really great site because its called CAMHS and me, it may be hard

to find if you don’t know what CAMHS is. This should be the first page that you find on Google

• Explains what different words mean. Not too much info. • Like the 'Jargon Buster' section • Doesn't mention CAMHS just 'Children and Young People's Services'

A few telephone numbers and that's it. Very vague what these services actually are. So much more could be done here. Offers, little information, that's not easy to access.

• Clearly aimed at child or young person • Addresses the young person directly in an appropriate way • There was a video to watch titled "what is CAMHS" which is more

YP friendly.

Information on the CAMHS Pages

Information about children and young people’s mental health problems

Information for young people

Information for parents

Making a Complaint

If you want to make a

complaint, talk to staff

…not YP specific. ….language of

CQC for first link isn’t YP friendly

Good example: Complaints: RDASH – their CYP’s MHS page

When you click on ‘make a complaint’

Advocacy

Any thoughts?