This is a vital part of the AMBIT model, and discussion of this should form a regular part of Team Meetings. It falls under the principle that workers in an AMBIT service should Respect local practice and expertise (one of the Core Features of AMBIT).

The team needs to develop a culture of constantly harvesting feedback from the young people and their families who are Experts By Experience, and, crucially, feeding this into their TeamTemplate Manualization to adjust what is delivered if required.

Recruiting clients to help develop the Service:

On taking on a new client one of the early tasks included in the CheckLists is to let them know HOW they can feed back suggestions and information (either anonymously - give them some Stamped Addressed Envelopes for the team administrator, marked ExpertsByExperience), or by giving a message directly to their KeyWorker), and WHAT will be done with this information.

Regular reminders of our interest in feedback.

This can be an empowering manoeuvre - especially if things have become "stalled"; the KeyWorker can adopt a non-expert (Mentalizing) approach that takes responsibility for things not working as well as they might:
"I got things wrong here in some way. Can you help me be clear about where I went wrong so I can take that back to the team and we can get your advice written down in our manual?"

Measures of Service User Experience of Care

The CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium website offers various versions of the well-validated CHI-ESQ (Experience of Service Questionnaire) for different age-groups, or Parents.

Access these via the CORC website, or directly for different groups:

CHI-ESQ 12-18yr olds self report

CHI-ESQ 9-11yrs self report

CHI-ESQ For parents whose children have been seen

CHI-ESQ addendum for children/young people living away from home

OpenSource parallels

This approach is also in keeping with the OpenSource model of developing flexible, responsive and pragmatic solutions to computing problems; AMBIT aims in some senses to emulate this model for combining and refining therapeutic techniques and interventions drawn from many sources.