General Psychiatry - Child & Adolescent

What to Expect

Your child's dual-lens assessment begins with a brief parent-only conversation, then age-appropriate time with your child, then time together. Your Consultant Psychiatrist will complete a full mental-state, developmental, medical, school and family history. Where indicated, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist or senior child therapist adds a 50-minute psychological consultation. You leave with a plain-English formulation and a written plan within one week.

The conversation covers

• Current symptoms: mood, anxiety, sleep, appetite, concentration, intrusive thoughts, self-harm, safety.
• Developmental history: pregnancy, birth, milestones, early temperament, nursery/primary.
• Medical history & medication: epilepsy, thyroid, chronic illness, pain, hormonal changes.
• Family history of mental illness and neurodevelopmental conditions.
• School: attainment, attendance, friendships, bullying, SEN or EHCP status, transitions.
• Home & family: siblings, separation, bereavement, parental mental health.
• Substance use (older adolescents): vapes, alcohol, cannabis, caffeine, prescription misuse.
• Risk & safety: self-harm, suicide, risk from others, online harms, safeguarding.
• Strengths, values and goals: what does a good term look like?

What you leave with

• A verbal formulation for the family in plain English.
• A written assessment letter within one week (parent-facing + child-facing where helpful).
• A personalised treatment plan.
• GP liaison letter and (with consent) school liaison letter.
• Safety-netting advice: what to do, and whom to call, if things change before your next appointment.

Adolescent confidentiality: what we tell your teenager

• "Most of what you say to us stays private. We will always tell your parents three kinds of thing: (1) anything that tells us you're not safe, (2) anything that tells us someone else is not safe, and (3) anything your parents need to know to help us help you. Otherwise, what you share is yours."

Fraser / Gillick competence Where a young person is assessed as competent to consent to their own treatment, we document that formally and involve parents in the way the young person agrees, not less, not more.

Medication and therapy work best when the rest of your child's life supports them. Your plan includes personalised guidance on the levers that most reliably change outcomes for young people.

• Sleep. Consistent bed and wake times, devices out of the bedroom, morning light.
• Screens and phones. Not a morality question; a mental-health variable. We'll suggest an age-appropriate plan.
• Movement and outdoors. Daily movement is evidence-based treatment for mood and anxiety in young people.
• Nutrition and hydration. Breakfast habits, caffeine intake, and growth monitoring where needed.
• Friendship & belonging. One or two trusted peers is a clinical protective factor.
• Family rhythm. Predictable routines, protected one-to-one time, clear and kind limits.
• Online safety and vaping/substances (older teens): honest conversation, not lectures.

Our clinicians

Meet the team: our Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists

Named C&A team (with placeholders for remaining members; please confirm before publishing). The adult roster on other service pages is not appropriate here; list only clinicians with child and adolescent accreditation or specialist training.

• Dr Karolina Szumanska-Ryt, Eton Lead and CAMHS Clinical Director. Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist. Mood, anxiety and adolescent self-harm.
• Dr Mahmoud Barakat, Consultant Psychiatrist in Sleep Medicine. Child & adolescent sleep disorders including insomnia, delayed sleep phase, parasomnias, nightmares, and sleep-related contributors to anxiety, school-avoidance, ADHD and autism.

Fees & Pricing