Are you starting to think about how you can use your CAMH qualification? Read about the kind of options you have below. This post is an anonymised version of an answer to an e mail I had from one of the student groups asking about career paths, and whether working within the CAMHS service is possible.
The majority of CAMHS practitioners at all tiers have a relevant professional Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) qualification; usually in social work, nursing, or another Allied health profession. However, this qualification is not always a requirement (in the way that for example, a medicine degree is a requirement to be a doctor) and sometimes, a relevant degree (such as the CAMHS FD) combined (and this is the crucial) with relevant work experience, can be accepted.
I think for those of you interested in working directly for CAMHS, it is worth starting to look at job adverts carefully to see the different requirements because it does vary from one CAMHS service to another. I had a look on the Indeed website and found this vacancy for example:
http://www.hclsocialcare.com/job/camhs-practitioner-children-and-families-plymouth-jobid-hq01233751?src=indeedorg&utm_source=indeedorg
It is a bit ambiguous (as CAMHS/Health & Social Care adverts tend to be!) but seems to suggest that an HNC (a similar level qualification to a foundation degree) in Social Care or related area would be accepted.
It is also worth trying to speak to CAMHS practitioners themselves to get an idea of what kind of background they have: not sure if any of your tutors are also practitioners or if they have any contacts for you?
Because your course is so new, I am not sure what the TLI offers in terms of opportunities to do a third ‘top up’ year and gain a full honours degree (another question to ask your academic tutor?) But some of you may be interested in looking at further study to gain a professional HCPC qualification in, for example Social Work after that. it does mean a lot of further study and postgrad study is not cheap, but have a look at Plymouth Unis course https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-social-work if you want to find out more.
For those of you who want to work in a more clinical setting, and willing to extend your scope to adults, the role of a primary graduate mental health worker could be worth considering: info here https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/primarycaregraduatementalhealthworker.aspx ( the opportunities section has links to where these jobs are advertised) Predictions are that because of the new Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Service these opportunities will increase.
I would suggest being flexible and curious about any opportunity rather than focus only on working for CAMHS. Wherever you find children and young people, you are ( increasingly) likely to find mental health issues, and so the knowledge and skills you are getting from your degree and your work placement could be very useful to any potential employer in education or support services ( eg youth work) Again, researching different roles using jobsearch websites will give you an idea of how your skills, experience and what you want from a job matches with the job description: keep the search broad: eg: child support, education support, etc and go beyond the job title, which in these kinds of roles, never really tells you much! Job search websites include http://www.indeed.co.uk, http://www.reed.co.uk, https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/ as well as the Local authority ones ( eg: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/counciljobs.htm)
In any kind of H&S care role, your work experience is as important as your actual academic qualification, so the kind of work based learning you are doing puts you ahead of the game, compared with full time classroom based students; and if you can make it directly relevant to what you think you want to do afterwards that is brilliant.
