Dorset CAMHS provides mental health support to children and young people. We work with patients and families across Dorset, and our services are now expanding to reach more young people and deliver even better care. We’re investing in new ways of working to provide care shaped around the people who need it, and are pioneering initiatives to deliver better mental health care in schools, community settings and specialist units.
We need the very best people to help us do that, so we’re now recruiting for staff across a range of professions. Take a look at our current vacancies to find out more.
Dorset CAMHS is managed by Dorset HealthCare, an award-winning NHS trust rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission in 2019.
What is CAMHS?
CAMHS (short for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) provides assessment and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are suffering significant mental difficulties. We also support families and carers who need advice or help.
We employ an experienced multi-disciplinary team of doctors, nurses, specialist therapists, psychologists and social workers. Our clinical team are supported by administrative staff, team leaders and managers. Our guide to roles in CAMHS includes more information about the different roles in CAMHS. You can also find out more about the work of CAMHS on the CAMHS Dorset website.
Developments at Dorset CAMHS
This is an incredibly exciting time to join Dorset CAMHS. We’ve been working closely with young people and families to improve the way we develop and deliver our services, and are now investing in a range of new initiatives including:
Dorset CAMHS has been chosen as a trailblazer service by NHS England to provide Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in local schools.
Our school teams will provide support and advice on mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, as well as early intervention to help young people experiencing difficulties such as mild to moderate anxiety. They will also help staff to provide a ‘whole school approach’ to mental health and wellbeing.
Dorset CAMHS also provides support to schools as part of the Discovery College, which you can read more about on the right.
The Discovery Project is a local initiative designed in partnership with peer specialists from the Dorset Mental Health Forum, which aims to enhance the care available to children and young people around mental health and wellbeing.
Now heading into its second year, the project was inspired by the recovery education principles used in adult mental health services, but is designed to allow young people to ‘discover’ rather than ‘recover’. The project not only provides specialist support and advice, but also encourages young people to discover and develop their own awareness and emotional resilience.
Closer2Home is a new intensive home treatment service that will provide an alternative to hospital, delivering specialist support at home for children and young people with acute mental health problems.
This innovative service will operate across Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, and will be delivered by four NHS Trusts who will each provide a Closer2Home team for their local area. Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will act as the lead provider for the service and combined, these five Trusts will form the Wessex and Dorset Provider Collaborative.
We are currently recruiting to roles throughout the service.
In response to emerging best practice across the country, Dorset CAMHS is developing a new assessment and brief intervention team (ABIT).
This team will provide early intervention to children and young people who need mental health support before they are referred to the main CAMHS team for more intensive help. ABIT will offer a range of brief interventions including psycho-education groups, access to online computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), brief one-to-one interventions, workshops and webinars.
Once up and running this service will work over extended hours, including evenings and weekend.
NHS England has commissioned Dorset HealthCare to build a new state-of-the-art eight-bed psychiatric intensive care unit for the Dorset CAMHS service.
Currently at the planning stage, this unit will provide intensive care to children and young people with complex mental health difficulties, in an environment designed to support their recovery and wellbeing.
At Dorset CAMHS we recognise that people are our greatest asset. We strive to make sure people enjoy working here and offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including an attractive pension package, learning and development opportunities, up to 33 days holiday, staff discounts and much more…
Dorset has much more to offer than just beautiful coastline (although that is amazing!)
We’ve got high-performing schools and colleges, vibrant towns, lively clubbing scenes, a thriving digital economy and financial industry, fascinating museums and cultural sites, two international airports on our doorstep and easy train links to London…
Got a question about careers in Dorset CAMHS ? You should find the answer here – and if not, we’ll point you in the right direction…