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A Service Evaluation of Referrals to Sheffield Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) by Ethnicity and Areas of Deprivation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2023
Abstract
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Aims
To investigate disparities in the number and outcome of referrals to Sheffield Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services from different ethnic groups and areas of deprivation
Methods
The authors reviewed the the 2021 census data for Sheffield and grouped Sheffield into 3 areas of deprivation (low, medium, and high) based on Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD 2019 Rank).
Reasons and outcome of referrals to Sheffield Community CAMHS for the months of March and April 2022 were analysed by ethnicity and deprivation,
Results
Our study shows that, compared to their white counterpart, Black and Asian children and young people (CYP) were markedly under-represented in CAMHS referrals, whilst CYP of mixed ethnicities were over-represented. Of this group, Asian and mixed ethnicity CYP were less likely to have referrals accepted. Similarly, CYP from areas of high deprivation were also less likely to be accepted into the community CAMHS service. While anxiety was the most common reason for referral, CYP from areas of high deprivation were 3 times more likely to be referred for behavioural difficulties than CYP from areas of low deprivation.
Conclusion
Our study highlighted that black ethnicities are disproportionately underrepresented in CAMHS referrals. Furthermore, children and young people from an Asian background are not only underrepresented in the number of referrals but also in the proportion of referrals accepted. Similarly, it is reported that CYP from deprived backgrounds are more likely to experience barriers to accessibility to mental health services, and this was also evident from our evaluation.
Black and Asian CYP continue to be under-represented in CAMHS services as are CYP from deprived communities. However, these ethnic groups present the highest reported mental health difficulties at adulthood. More research is therefore needed in this area, to identify the specific barriers to accessing mental health care in Sheffield Community CAMHS, so as to allow the provision of culturally appropriate mental health services for the ethnic and high derivation groups.
- Type
- Service Evaluation
- Information
- BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S131 - S132
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Footnotes
Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.
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