Tracking your progress
We will work with you to monitor your progress with CAMHS. Here's some information about the routine outcome measures we use.
What are routine outcome measures?
Routine outcome measures are questionnaires that can help you and your clinician to understand what you are experiencing. They are used:
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To check in with how your treatment is going and make changes if needed.
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To help you and your clinician understand what you are having difficulties with to make sure you get the right treatment from CAMHS.
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To help you communicate with your clinician about things that you may have difficulty talking about, for example treatment not working or changing the goals of your treatment to something that is more important to you.
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To share your thoughts and experiences of CAMHS with us so we can improve our services.
Watch this short animation from Child Outcome Research Consortium (CORC) explaining what outcome measures are.
Why do you need to measure outcomes?
As well as being a useful tool for your clinician to monitor how you're feeling, outcome measures are one of the ways your voice is heard to make sure you have influence over your mental health care, support and treatment you receive from CAMHS.
Watch these videos to find out more about how outcome measures are used to support young people with their mental health.
Let's get real: How do young people relate to filling in mental health outcome measures?
What constitutes a good outcome from child mental health support?
For more information about routine outcome measures, visit the Child Outcomes Research Consortium's website
You will be asked to complete the outcome questionnaires at a time near or during your assessment. This can help you and your clinician to understand your mental health and experiences.
You might also be asked to complete them during treatment. This can help you and your clinician to understand how you are getting on with the treatment and support you are receiving and to check in with how you are feeling.
At the end of your treatment, you will be asked the same questionnaires again. We will compare these to the earlier ones you completed so you and your clinician can see what has improved, and to learn what difficulties remain to decide next steps.
There are different types of outcome measures which monitor different things. The most common ones that are used in CAMHS are:
Goal Based Outcomes (GBO)
Goals are meaningful changes that you want to make, for example, going to school more often or seeing friends at the weekend. They are unique to you and can help you to communicate with your clinician about any difficulties you are experiencing.
Goal Based Outcomes are the main outcome measure we use. They are a way of checking in and reflecting on the goals you and your clinician have agreed and exploring any obstacles or challenges to achieving them you might be experiencing.
You may talk about your goals with your clinician at your first assessment. It's fine if you don't have all the answers, but it can be helpful to start thinking about your goals before starting treatment.
At the start of treatment, you and your clinician will identify more specific goals you would like to work towards. You will also talk about how your treatment can help you to work towards them. You may use SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) goals to do this. SMART goals are a way of making sure your goals are right for you.
Read this leaflet about Goal Based Outcomes which has been co-produced with children and young people who have received treatment from the Sussex CAMHS service.
Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-8)
If you have had a traumatic experience, the CRIES-8 questionnaire helps you and your clinician understand this and the impact they are having on your day-to-day life. It is helpful to work out if you may be experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
There are 8 questions which you will complete with a clinician and then talk to them about your answers. This could be at your assessment as well as during your treatment.
There are certain treatments that work well for PTSD and this outcome measure will help you and your clinician to decide what treatment is best for you.
Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)
If you are experiencing anxiety and depression, the RCADS questionnaire is used to help you and your clinician understand the impact this is having on your day-to-day life.
There are certain treatments that work well for anxiety and depression, and this outcome measure can help you and your clinician decide what treatment is best for you.
This questionnaire is quite long as it has 47 questions, but you can ask your clinician for some help with completing it.
Yes, your clinician can help you to complete outcome measures.
They can't tell you what to say, but they could help you in other ways such as:
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Write your answers for you
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Explain what the question means
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Finding a different way to give your answers
The Experience of Service Questionnaire is a space to tell us how you found your experience with Sussex CAMHS. It helps us to know how to improve our service to make it better for you, your parents, carers and family.
We welcome all feedback from you and your family; we want to know what you thought was good about CAMHS and what was bad and needs improving. You can do this anonymously so we won't know who has said what or you can include your name.
If you have a question or concern, you can also contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). PALS is a confidential advice and support service.