Dudley North MP Marco Longhi gained insight into the work of our CAMHS Ambassadors when he visited the Trust last week.
Marco was met by key figures within our children’s services, James Reeley and Kirsty Moss, who provided him with background to the services, before engaging with four CAMHS Ambassadors in a question and answer session which included Trust Chair, Jeremy Vanes and Chief Executive, Marsha Foster.
Our CAMHS Ambassadors are young people who share their views and time to help shape our CAMHS services.
The visit came as CAMHS Ambassadors wanted to share the great work that they have been doing to champion mental health services for young people locally. The Ambassadors also wanted to use the opportunity to engage with their local MP to encourage them to continue discussing the topic in Parliament.
Speaking after the visit on Friday 17 March, Marco Longhi MP said: “I was delighted to join our CAMHS Ambassadors at an event at Trafalgar House in Dudley. I have always cared passionately for young people’s mental health and raised over £160,000 for local mental health charities focussing on young people.
“I was very pleased to see how inquisitive the ambassadors were and how they wanted to make sure that their voice was being heard. This dialogue is key for commissioners of services and providers so that young people can receive support that is more closely aligned to what they actually need.
“I will always be a strong advocate for them and I encouraged them and commissioners and providers present at the meeting to be much more creative in developing local solutions, especially with third sector providers. The problem with our NHS offer is that it tries to provide a ‘one size fits all’ solution to individuals who have very individual needs, so our service offer and support really needs to become much more tailored to them.
“I also encouraged our ambassadors to think about the future in a different way: schools too are far too prescriptive and narrow-minded about what success looks like and this can be difficult to change. But by focussing on next steps and with the right attitude everybody’s future has positive and unexplored opportunities that will come to all of them.”