CAMHS CYWP Careers

 

The role of a Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Practitioner (CYWP) is a gateway into working therapeutically with children and young people, without the need for a core profession (such as Nursing or Social Work). CYWP’s are a cornerstone of many therapeutic settings, and the role offers a great deal of variation. As a CYWP you would primarily be working with children and young people aged five – 18 offering several different evidence-based, brief intervention sessions, targeting the young person’s specific difficulties, including:

• Worry
• Low mood
• Sleeping difficulties
• Anxiety

During your training period you will learn how to appropriately apply interventions such as:

• Worry management
• Brief behavioural activation
• Graded exposure
• Sleep hygiene

This is primarily achieved through the completion of six – eight intervention sessions, whereby you as a practitioner would collaboratively support the young person in developing the skills and tools to be able to manage their difficulties more effectively, upskilling young people to become the champion of their own mental health. The role of a CYWP comes with several responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Holding a caseload of young people, offering evidence-based interventions. As you develop as a Practitioner you will learn how you can add your own style and character to these interventions, ensuring that the evidence base is maintained, whilst also using your creativity to engage young people.
• Completing comprehensive assessments to explore with the young person their difficulty and consider as a team what would be the most appropriate support that could be offered. Developing formulations, aiding the young person in understanding what the onset and maintenance of their difficulties may be.
• To work with families, carers and schools to provide holistic, overarching support within the young person’s systems to ensure that difficulties that are outside of the young person’s control are appropriately managed. Along with this, developing an understanding of mental health with these agencies to promote beneficial mental health and wellbeing.
• To understand the role of risk management, ensuring that the safeguarding of children and their families or carers is the top priority; learning to understand what risk is, how it can be documented and managed in order to promote the safety of all children and young people accessing services.
• The opportunity to access regular clinical supervision whereby you would have the chance to explore the work that you are completing with young people, hone the techniques that you have developed, and consider how you would be developing as a Practitioner. In supervision Practitioners learn from experienced members of staff and have the opportunity to offer their own thoughts and experience for the betterment of everyone involved.
• To liaise with a number of different agencies, from schools, to 3rd party agencies that may be able to offer support. It is the responsibility of a CYWP to ensure that the children and families under their care are being supported by the most appropriate agencies, and to ensure that communication is used to promote holistic support.

CYWP’s work with the families of children and young people, in developing a parents or guardians understanding of what the young person may be experiencing. In doing so the practitioner serves to ensure that children are better understood, and that their difficulties are normalised and validated. As a CYWP you could be offered the opportunity to work in flexible ways, in many cases CYWP’s have the opportunity to work at CAMHS bases (along with other arranged bases), where appropriate virtual offers are in place along with working in schools in order to promote accessibility to children and young people.

 

The role of a CYWP is rewarding, you are graced with the opportunity to support children and families that may be struggling. When successful interventions are implemented, it can have a hugely positive impact on the children and families that you work with, allowing them to live their lives without being hindered by their difficulties. As a CYWP you learn to become part of a community of practitioners, including fellow CYWP’s along with other modalities of care, practitioners who want to make positive change in the lives of children and young people.