Young People’s Experiences of being Assessed and Recommended for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Clinicians

The aim of this thesis is to provide the field of child and adolescent mental health with an understanding, from young people’s perspectives, of being assessed and having decisions made about their interventions by clinicians within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). In order to obtain this understanding it is important to explore how young people experience both the CAMHS assessment process and being recommended interventions. Therefore, paper one consists of a literature review in which nine studies regarding young people’s experiences of being assessed in a mental health service were critically appraised and synthesised. Common themes were discovered across the papers around the therapeutic relationship, pre-conceived views and information and communication.
The literature review highlighted that young people’s experiences of being recommended interventions following a CAMHS assessment had not been considered within the literature. Furthermore, Government aims and the literature showed the importance of young people being included in decisions regarding their care. Therefore, paper two presents a qualitative study exploring young people’s experiences of being assessed and recommended Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) by CAMHS clinicians. Six young people from a CAMHS setting DBT group were interviewed. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) four super-ordinate themes and seven sub-themes were identified. Super-ordinate themes demonstrated the importance of the clinician in assessment and recommendation, that young people can experience anxiety before an assessment, young people value being part of decisions and being offered choice about treatment recommendations, and that the interviews reflected CAMHS experiences.
Paper three provides two executive summaries of paper two, for the purposes of sharing the study’s findings with the young people who took part and for their parents/guardians. Therefore, part one of paper three will be presented in an age appropriate and user friendly format for young people