(CAMHS) and Schools - London Health Programmes

2 METHODOLOGY
The research aims and objectives covered a very broad remit. The focus of the
research was on joint working in practice, the factors that facilitated joint working and
the barriers to joint working. The research is grounded in the assumption that joint
working is positive, and looks for models of practice, rather than questioning this
assumption. As the focus was on the practice of joint working, the research relied on
interviews with professionals and practitioners working in the field, and evaluations
of this work, and some observation by researchers. Direct contact was not made with
service users on ethical grounds and due to time constraints.
The research used a combination of methods to ensure coverage of the breadth of
concerns. It was conducted in three stages: firstly a literature review, secondly a
survey of existing practice and thirdly, four case studies. Additional material was
gathered by key informant interviews.
2.1 Literature review
A literature review was conducted to identify models and learn from practice
developed elsewhere. 2 It consulted over 50 publications, most of which concentrated
on work from the USA. Three key reviews identified as useful were Rones and
Hoagward (2000), Oxford Health Services Research Unit (forthcoming) ,and Day and
Wood (1999).
2.2 Survey of existing practice
A survey of existing practice used a semi-structured postal questionnaire to CAMHS
in England to scope the extent of practice, the models being used, and to help identify
examples to be explored in the next stage of the research. The questionnaire was
developed with the assistance of CAMHS managers. Unfortunately it turned out to be
difficult to get an accurate sample frame CAMHS, since there is no centrally held
information on CAMHS and there is huge variation in terms of size, location and
services provided across the regions. This problem is in the process of being
addressed by a mapping exercise which is about to be conducted by the Department of
Health. Questionnaires were sent to 309 CAMHS taken from the Directory of Child
and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Young Minds, 1998) 3 . Reminder letters were
sent out and this was supplemented by telephone follow-up, at which point the
researchers were referred to other agencies providing CAMHS services. Some of the
larger CAMHS services sent in several questionnaires where their services are broken
down into smaller geographical areas. For the purposes of this research, these are
treated as separate CAMHS, as they report on different service activity. In total 171
usable questionnaires were r,eturned of 313 sent out representing a return rate of 55%.
2.3 Case studies
In order to explore some of the themes identified in the body of this report, four
CAMHS were selected for in-depth study from the 83 respondents who expressed an
interest in participating in further research. There was a huge range of interesting
practice, and it was hard to narrow down the case studies. On the basis of factors
2 Literature review was conducted by Dr A Barron, Leigh and Barron Consulting Ltd.
3 The YoungMinds Directory of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services lists out-patient and inpatient
services for the whole of the UK. It is available from YoungMinds – www.youngminds.org.uk.
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