Plea for only urgent mental health service calls

People have been asked to limit contact to emergencies or to respond to the Camhs team

People have been asked not to make routine calls to child mental health services about waiting times to allow the team to work through a backlog of referrals.

In October, six additional clinicians joined the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) to assess and treat more than 800 cases over the next 12 months.

Manx Care said while it was "understandable" that families were keen to secure a timeframe for assessment, it had resulted in an "overwhelming volume of enquiries".

However, it said those who were worried about their child's immediate safety should contact the Camhs duty team, or the emergency services if it was out of hours.

The health care provider said limiting contact to urgent situations or responses to requests sent out by the service would allow the team to "dedicate more time" to reducing the waiting times.

Referrals

Manx Care said, since the extra staff joined the team, responding to general queries was having a "profound impact on the team's ability to concentrate resources on the waiting list initiative", it the health care provider said.

The team would contact families over the coming months to offer assessment appointments, it said.

A response to a freedom of information request published in September revealed 815 young people had been referred to the service for assessment as of August this year, which followed on from 798 referrals in 2023.

The service urged those who were offered an appointment but no longer required it to cancel it as early as possible to allow for another family to use the slot.