A collaboration between DHU Healthcare and the LLR Integrated Care Board (ICB) to tackle mental health support has been hailed as an example of best practice.
In its Children’s Mental Health Services 2022-23 report, published in March 2024, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) highlighted a self-referral website that supports the mental health of children and young people living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) as ‘a beacon of best practice’ which has transformed access to mental health support services.
DHU Healthcare and the LLR Integrated Care Board (ICB) worked together to develop the My Self Referral website, pioneering mental health referral website for children and young people.
The site 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. With input from young people, the platform enables confidential self-referral, and connects 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, Children and Family Wellbeing Service Triage Team, Relate and other local community support groups and activities.
The website was launched in May 2023 and the OCC praised it as ‘a model of excellence in improving referral processes and reducing children's wait times for support’. 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 Service Lead for DHU Healthcare CYP Mental Health Triage and Navigation Service, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative, adding: “We are delighted to offer ‘My Self-Referral’ to children and young people who may be struggling with their mental health. 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 empower this often hard-to-reach age group to seek help by making a self-referral in confidence and from the safety of their own home 24/7 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/