Managing referrals of ‘people you know’: Views of child and adolescent mental health professionals

Referrals of ‘people you know’ to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) raise issues around anxiety, equity and confidentiality. Research in this area is limited. The framework approach was used to analyse interviews with CAMHS teams across Yorkshire. Issues identified included choice (and whose choice this is), power and perceived imbalances of power and relative lack of ‘professional distance’. The notion that health staff should receive preferential treatment by right was not widespread, but nevertheless existed. Standard procedure has to be flexibly applied to offer the best quality care. Families should not be inappropriately advantaged by ‘knowing us’, but disadvantage should be recognised and kept to a minimum.