Occasionally, when teenagers are 16 and over, they want to talk alone without their parents knowing. This is usually OK, as long as we feel you are safe. 

See below for information about what we can and can’t keep private. It can be helpful for us to just reassure your family that things are OK or just tell them the basics about what we have agreed.

CAMHS is part of the National Health Service (NHS) and all health services like us (GPs, hospitals, clinics etc. that are part of the NHS) have a duty to keep information about you confidential. If you are ever in a situation where you are not sure about confidentiality, don’t be afraid to ask. It is your right to know what is happening with the information you tell people.

Confidentiality means that no information that we have about you will be shared with anyone outside of the Health Service without your permission. However, there are some situations where we have to, by law, give people information about you with or without your permission. In these situations we will always try to talk to you about things first.
 

SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION

We may need to inform social care:

• If there are concerns that you might have been, or are currently, being neglected.
• If there are concerns that you might have been, or are currently, being abused – this might be sexually, physically and/or emotionally.
• If there are concerns that you might have been, or are currently, abusing or neglecting other young people (or if you know about other people who are).
• If there are concerns that you might have been, or are currently, at risk of serious physical or mental harm, or if you threatened to harm or injure another young person.

RISK

We will think about risks with every young person who uses our service and will sometimes need to ask more questions to asses this further. Your CAMHS worker will explain to you what a risk assessment is and why we do it. All health professionals who work with you will have access to your risk assessment and to this agreement.
 

ACCESS TO YOUR HEALTH RECORDS

It is your right to be able to see the notes and records that we keep of you. There is a process that you need to go through for this. Please discuss this with your clinician.

AND REMEMBER...

Confidentiality is very important to us – we will only share information about you when we feel it is absolutely necessary, and we will always explain what information we are sharing and why.