The 7 HELPFUL Habits integrate our clinical and theoretical experiences and make it meaningful to CAMHS. The 10 High Impact Changes for Service Improvement (Modernisation Agency, 2004) and the training and literature available on demand and capacity management are useful. Unfortunately, little of the language or examples are mental health related. 10 High Impact Changes for Mental Health (2005) is somewhat easier to read but is still hard to interpret for complex services such as CAMHS. We have tried to do this interpretation by linking theory with practical changes, validated in our own clinical experience and that of health systems and non-health systems internationally. We have condensed the ideas into the word HELPFUL to make them memorable.

We hope that you will find the following ideas practical and meaningful in redesigning your services.

The ideas are not intended to be directives: they provide you with some basic ingredients. These ingredients suggest a variety of key changes that can make a real difference to service delivery. You can add your own ingredients or substitute some, but all balanced meals have the basic food groups present. We also hope that clinical teams will use these ingredients in their own way to provide their own recipe for change. So enjoy!