Staff were left baffled last week when windscreens across the Charity’s Northampton’s site were adorned with leaflets which suggested someone was set to “tell the truth” about our Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) service.

The flyer, which featured a picture of the main building, had the headline “find out the truth – candid CAMHS”. There was also a QR code for people to scan.

Many were unsure where the QR code would take them with some people voicing their concerns on our internal Facebook page MySTAH about what they might find.

English teacher Paul Hanrahan led the way with him posting a picture saying he had found it on his car and was unsure what it was about.

For those who did scan the QR code, they discovered that the leaflet was all part of a clever campaign launched by the Communications team in a bid to raise awareness of the hard work which staff in CAMHS do each and every day.

The video, which can be viewed here was professionally shot by a videographer and features Tyler Mitchell, Dr Hrishikesh Nachane, Shelby Pilgrem, Nick Rayment, Rebecca Buckley, Cheryl Smith, Hannah Batkin and Jodie Cocklin.

All staff, who have either worked for, or are currently located within our CAMHS division, read a script based on what people had said about the work they do within Smyth House.

Dale Goodacre, Head of Nursing for CAMHS, said: “We gave Communications the task to raise the profile of CAMHS and show other services across the charity that the people who work here are absolutely committed to the cause.

“We asked them to find a way of promoting what we do, while also showcasing our dedicated staff and how deeply they care for their patients. Never did I expect them to come up with such an amazing idea which has perfectly captured our diverse, loyal and hardworking staff. I would like to thank all those who were involved.”

 Jo Lehmann, Head of Communications, said: “This whole project has been a closely guarded secret and only a handful of people were let in on the ‘disruptive’ campaign as we wanted to create maximum impact among our staff.

“The idea of ‘Candid CAMHS’ was to try to make people think that perhaps something unofficial had been put out, which we thought would help gain traction. Fiona Bailey in the Comms team came up with the well-thought out and carefully planned idea, which we’re very proud of. We also wanted to find an alternative way of reaching our staff who we know aren’t sat at their computers all day.

“So far we’ve had 800 views on YouTube and now we’ve launched internally, we plan to take this video external so everyone can see what a great job our CAMHS service does.”

To watch the video, click here.