Social Workers in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)

Feb 2011 to Feb 2012 Committee Members:

Chairperson:     Sheila Mc Kenna

Secretary:           Mary Mc Namara

Committee:       David Hughes, Declan Coogan, Sinéad Freeley, Sarah Houston, Paul Longmore, Eleanor Kelly, Roberta Mulligan, Andree Carthy 

My role as chairperson was acknowledged by everyone at the AGM and in stepping down from my role as chairperson I was thanked by members of the committee. I would like to say thanks to everyone on the committee and to the wider group for their gratitude. 

Meetings:

Since the last AGM of the IASW, our special interest group in CAMHS has had three regular meetings of the national group, 24th May 2010 in Cork, 15th Nov ’10 in Lucena CAMHS Rathgar & 7th Feb 2011 in Mater CAMHS James Joyce St. We would like to thank David Hughes, Mary McNamara and Paul Longmore for facilitating the clinical practice workshops in May ’10, Nov ’10 & Feb 2011. 

April 2010, IASW AGM & Conference:

• Motions were proposed by SW’s in CAMHS. See IASW Annual Report 2009/2010. 2011 motions to be proposed at the IASW AGM in May 2011.
• In Cork at the national meeting on 24th May: Margo Fenton, Therapeutic Social Worker, Cork University Maternity Hospital and Ella Lovett, Senior Clinical Psychologist will present on the Infant Mental Health Approach using a case study and drawing on the theoretical framework.

At the November national meeting presentation:

Commission to Enquire into Child Abuse Report; A Social Work Perspective by Mary Fennessy, Head of Social Work Department, Lucena Clinic.

• At the recent national meeting on 7th Feb, Sinead Crowley & Andree Carthy - The Space Programme Meetings with IMPACT.
• Sheila has committed a lot of time attending meetings with Impact and feeding back the content of these meetings to the national group meetings.

CAMHS Advisory Group:

Sarah Houston has been representing the interests of the SIG on a multidisciplinary group chaired by Brendan Doody. The group has been meeting monthly since July 2009 to discuss and inform HSE practices regarding audit, activity and outcome measures, key performance indicators and best practice guidelines in CAMHS in Ireland. 

HSE National Audit:

In November 2010 the CAMHS services within the HSE Linndara CAMHS and Limerick CAMHS carried out a national audit. 

CAPA (The choice & partnership approach):

In October 2010, Linndara CAMHS HSE & Limerick CAMHS HSE attended CAPA training in the Aisling hotel. There is a follow up training day planned for 17th June 2011. Google CAPA to view the website.

Children’s Mental Health Coalition:

Our S.I.G. has agreed to sign up to the children’s mental health coalition (see: www.childrensmentalhealth.ie for details). Julie Ann Lyons will represent us at the next meeting of the coalition in Dublin on 14th February 2011. 

NSWQB update:

Paul Longmore was nominated to represent the group on the NSWQB panel of assessors. Thanks to Paul for representing our special interest group. The NSWQB panel was subsequently disbanded but Paul’s nomination has been accepted onto the newly formed CORU panel which will fulfill a very similar function. 

CORU:

Paul Longmore will represent the group under the CORU functions. We are delighted to hear Paul will be involved with CORU and will be able to represent our view there.

Committee and Priorities for 2011:

I would like to thank the Committee members, especially Declan Coogan, Sheila McKenna, Mary McNamara, Eleanor Kelly, Sarah Houston, Paul Longmore & David Hughes for all their commitment, time and very hard work. I would like to congratulate Sheila McKenna elected as chairperson of SW’s in CAMHS sig. I would like to welcome Roberta Mulligan and Andree Carthy to the committee. On behalf of the committee I would also like to thank the social workers who attended our national meetings. We were delighted to see Declan (Coogan) at our recent SIG meeting on 7^th February & to thank Declan for all his hard work representing our group in his role as PRO.  The priorities of the CAMHS committee for the coming year are very similar to the past years. Please feel free to contact any member of the committee at any time regarding any queries or info about our role as SW’s in CAMHS.

• The next meeting for SW in CAMHS will take place on Monday 16th May 2011. Time: 11am – 3.30pm.

Venue: Galway (venue details will be emailed to members nearer the time)

Meetings in Nov 2011 & Feb 2012:

• Mon 7th Nov in Lucena CAMHS Rathgar
• Mon 6th Feb 2012 in Mater CAMHS James Joyce Street