CAMHS goes wild

Background

There is increasing evidence that being in natural environments has many mental health benefits. However, we are still not sure how best to integrate nature-based approaches into current specialist mental health provision.

Aims

In this study, we aimed to evaluate staff views and experiences of a new nature-based way of working with children and young people being treated in Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Cornwall.

CAMHS staff were invited to participate in a Natural Academy training on nature-based working and the research study documented staff views and experiences before and after training.

The overarching aims of the project were:

1. Evaluating the acceptability and desirability of using nature-based approaches in CAMHS

2. Evaluating barriers and enablers to implementation of nature-based approaches in CAMHS

3. Evaluating potential of nature-based approaches to promote positive outcomes for CAMHS staff including improved wellbeing

4. Evaluating potential of nature-based approaches to promote positive outcomes CAMHS service-users

Activity

CAMHS staff were invited to complete training on nature-based approaches. The training course was provided by The Natural Academy. Survey and interviews with CAMHS staff explored how nature-based approaches could be integrated into CAMHS work and their potential to promote positive outcomes for staff and service-users.

We presented findings from this work at the 2024 European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation. The team were awarded the poster prize.

Additional funding associated with this project includes Public Engagement Springboard funding which supported us to engage with children, young people (CYP) and their families to co-design meaningful outcome measures to assess the acceptability and effectiveness of NBAs in the CAMHS context.

Outputs

Our findings informed further evaluations of the potential of nature-based approaches to improve the experience and outcomes of CAMHS staff and service-users.