Ds is 15 and was diagnosed with autism in September. He has long term very low mood. He is isolating himself from the world. He has very low self esteem and would tell anyone he is useless. He has no friends. When he's having a bad week he struggles to eat.
We are trying to source some mental health support for him as we feel we don't quite have the expertise to really help him now.
It seems impossible to get help. I spoke to our gp a couple of weeks ago and she said she would do a camhs referral. She phoned last week and said he needs to come in and see her as she had contacted camhs and they won't even consider a referral until she's seen him. I have also been told by a couple of health professionals that camhs in our area won't see autistic young people. Ds attends a ASD youth group but he struggles to cope with that, so it's not really helping. Ds has very poor social skills. His assessment report says he has significant difficulties with communication and interaction. The paediatrician told us at his diagnosis appointment that there is no support she can offer. Her words were 'the school need to sort this out'.
School haven't been great. He has been having one mentoring session a week with a TA but Ds doesn't share any of his worries and basically says what is needed to get out if the room as quickly as possible! They have offered this week to refer him for counselling through the local authority. My concern with that is if it's not someone with experience of working with autistic young people then it probably won't work.
We feel like there is so little support for autistic teens. If we could find the right support we would try and pay privately if needed but I don't really have any idea what I'm looking for.
How on earth do you help an autistic teen who hates himself and his life and wishes he had never been born?
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47 replies
Punxsutawney · 30/11/2019 13:32
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