West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin marked Mental Health Awareness Week by thanking the staff and management responsible for the county’s mental health provision for young people. The MP met up with the team running the county’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and received an update on recent improvements in delivering help to local people. The service has seen a major increase in referrals over the last four years with 2826 young people being referred to the service last year. Young people with mental health issues can now access support either by referring themselves or being put forward by a GP or a school. Previously, only GPs could refer patients for help, restricting the number of people who were able to access support. CAMHS has also widened its activities to focus more effort on prevention and early intervention to reduce the number of people needing support in the long-run. The CAMHS team works alongside schools to identify those needing help and deliver support both through traditional therapy solutions but also online support – which is often more popular with young people. Harriett recently visited The Chase High School to help launch a dedicated online mental health resource for pupils who need help or advice. Harriett commented: “As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, I arranged to meet with the CAMHS team to get an update on its work. “The team is doing a great job seeing more people and working hard on the longer term solution by identifying children and young people at potential risk much earlier. “There are still some delays getting young people in for help but I was heartened at some of the wider projects to increase engagement and use online resources to offer immediate assistance. “We also discussed the continued need for access to the right number of local in-patient beds and the challenges of recruiting the right staff, and I offered the whole team my support as they work hard to offer the best possible care to local people.”