A collaborative website between DHU Healthcare and the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) has been held up as an example of good practice by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC)
The My Self Referral website was launched in 2023 as a pioneering mental health referral website for children and young people and has received positive feedback for its role in transforming access to mental health support services.
The My Self-Referral website helps children and young people under the age of 18, as well as their parents or carers, to easily access mental health information and support. Crafted with input from young people, the platform enables confidential self-referral, connecting users with a diverse range of local and community-based mental health support services, including CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services), Mental Health Support Teams in Schools, Early Help, Relate, and other local community support groups and activities.
Despite its recent launch in May 2023, the OCC has praised the website as a model of excellence in improving referral processes and reducing children's wait times for support. In its Children’s Mental Health Services 2022-23 report, published in March, the OCC emphasised the impact of LLR's decision to empower children and young people to self-refer into the Triage and Navigation Service, resulting in enhanced referral quality and expedited processing times. The report also added the website helps to make ‘children feel reassured and in control, and has resulted in fewer children seeking CAMHS support and shorter waiting lists’.
Martin Reeves, Clinical Lead for DHU Healthcare CYP Mental Health Triage and Navigation Service, is deligted with how the site has been received, saying: “We are pleased to be able to provide ‘My Self-Referral’ as a place for children and young people who may be struggling with their mental health to go. It is there to give confidence to and encourage children, young people, their families, and carers to source credible, valuable information to help them when feeling vulnerable. We hope it will continue to empower this often hard-to-reach age group to seek help by making a self-referral from the safety of their own home.
“Children and young people can access the website 24/7, in confidence, and we hope they will have the courage to ask for help without feeling they are alone and get the reassurance and advice they need to feel better about their mental health.”
To access the MySelfReferral website, visit: www.myselfreferral-llr.nhs.uk
To read the full OCC report, visit: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/childrens-mental-health-services-2022-23/