CHILDREN and young people should now get quicker access to mental health services, thanks to plans to improve the county's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Healthwatch in Wiltshire compiled a Young Listeners report to get feedback from clients already being treated in the county; as a result, they have recorded earlier intervention through schools, online counselling and better help for parents to reduce referrals.

More than 170 children took part in the survey. Many said that they thought that the waiting time for an appointment for CAMHS was too long, with some waiting as much as eight weeks to be assessed.

Now Wiltshire Council and NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group has announced they are aiming to cut those waiting times by bringing more mental health workers to children through selected schools and increasing online support to take the pressure off the more specialist services.

Kerry McKenzie, 18, helped to present the report to the board with Healthwatch Wiltshire Manager Lucie Woodruff on Thursday. She said: “Before ever carrying out a listening exercise, I was sceptical at the impact it would make on people.

"But then I got into it and realised young people who are talking to someone of a similar age to them open up more than they do to an adult. It’s great that we are being heard and can make a difference.”

Chris Graves, chair of Healthwatch Wiltshire, the county’s independent champion for health and social care issues, said: “It’s wonderful to see changes are being made and the voice of young people in the area are being heard.

“Through this project, we have seen an absolutely inspiring, engaging and enthusiastic group of young people get stuck into really valuable work. In their own time, they have gone out to listen to other children and young people about their experiences of health and social care services.”

Healthwatch Wiltshire will now launch a service called YouthWatch, which will train volunteers aged 14-25 to listen to the views of children and other young people in the county to find out what they think about health and social care services. They will then feed this information back to decision-making health services boards.