What to expect at CAHMS appointment (ASD Assessment)?

[PloddingPandaMum]

My 12 year old has an assessment appointment this week at CAHMS. It says it will be 90 minutes. The school have already done their assessments which was talking to me and him (mostly him obv) and class observations.

This next step is an appointment at a CAHMS NHS clinic and I'm just wondering what the 90 minutes will consist of as it seems a long time and he doesn't like surprises (also somewhat obviously). I appreciate it varies across the country - we are in Sandwell in the West Midlands if that makes any difference!

Thanks for any information. Just want to be as prepared as we can be and tell him what to expect.

Sorry should have said CAMHS not CAHMS...

We had ours in April. My dd was in a separate room with a speech and language therapist (she does not need s & l), this therapist played with her, interacted, asked her questions, observed etc. We were in a different room with the doctor and we had to answer lots of questions, what the pregnancy was like, birth, how she was as a baby/toddler, when her firsts were, eye contact, interactions with others. I wasn't expecting this so it took me by surprise. Luckily I had written a list of things she's done or still does. Even the smallest of things is useful. After about 50 mins, we met dd, went back about 20 mins later and both salt and doc were in the room, we were given her diagnosis there and then. Any questions you have ask then, as we were discharged from that process, and had to wait nearly 3months for the diagnosis letter. Good luck.

Hi OP, I work in CAMHS and it sort of depends whether it is a general assessment or an Autism-specific assessment , and it does vary a bit between services so I can only speak in general terms. If it is a general CAMHS assessment then you will probably be seen by one or two clinicians, who will probably speak to you and your son both separately (if he feels comfortable with that) and together, and also give you some questionnaires aimed at finding out what your view of the problem is, how long it's been going on, also his general developmental history.. If it's an Autism specific assessment then they will probably do something called an Autism Diagnostic Observational Assessment (ADOS) which involves your son meeting one to one with a clinician who will talk to him and gives him some tasks/games to play, while other members of the team observe (usually from another room so they don't get in the way).

Whichever assessment it is, their whole aim will be to put you and your son at ease as much as possible and to make it a positive experience so he will want to come back if needed. Hope that helps a bit and it goes well.

Sorry OP, I obviously didn't read your title properly and I can see it's for an ASD assessment

I will jot down some of his milestones etc - he had some sort of assessment in infants which didn't come to anything at the time, but I will dig that out. I can note down all sorts of things that have caused him issues, like his tics and gesticulating in infants because he didn't have the words or the skills to express himself verbally and more recently how random he gets in pulbic places - school and routine is one thing but if there's a busker in the city centre god help us all. Cute when they're 4, not so much when they are 5 foot 7 and look 16. Thanks all.

A member of the school team said she suspected he might be more ADHD but apparently you have to go through the ASD assessment first before they refer you to Occupational Health for ADHD?

Definitely a good thing to take some notes with you as pp said.

Pregnancy and birth, toddler stage. Dates and times he did things.

All the wierd things, the tics, lack of empathy etc,

Make sure you take a few minutes at the end, ask/say you'd like to run through your list and make sure the doctor has everything you wanted noted is written down.

It seems to vary so much from area to area.

Our first assessment meeting was around 90 minutes and DD, me and the doctor were in a room together the whole time. He asked questions about friendships, eating habits, sleeping habits, school work etc.

To be honest I didn't particularly like him. He was pretty patronising and we definitely didn't click personality wise.

However, at the end of the meeting he said he would refer us to the ADHD clinic to get the formal diagnosis. It was another quite long wait for that appointment but since then DD has had a formal diagnosis, has started medication and I have found the actual ADHD specialists excellent. The initial CAMHs meeting was really a stepping stone to get to where we needed to be in the system.

Lindy2 if you don't mind me asking so it sounds like you had to go through an ASD assessment to get the ADHD referral? Or was the assessment for ADHD related concerns to start with?

Thanks again definitely making notes now.

PloddingPandaMum Our referral to CAMHs was for an ADHD diagnosis. The first meeting we had (after all the form filling) seemed to be some kind of screening to see if we did actually need to progress to see the ADHD diagnosis team.

I'm pretty sure DD does also have ASD but her predominant symptoms are ADHD.

Thanks all it was an interesting interview, prob more than 90 minutes with both of us in the room so he could talk and I could comment or answer where needed. Lots of questions detailing his life in general from birth and development to how he is today. Not sure my son was really engaged with it, he found it hard to sit still that long but he answered questions as best he could, she noticed his fidgeting, some questions made me think, and gave me some interesting information along the way. I got him a subway for lunch after and a hug before he went back into school and I went back into work. Signs pointing to ADHD and so she was a bit frustrated that it was a MMA assessment and that the school hadn't got inclusion things in place already based on his obvious impulse probs etc.but I can't fault the school in general they have initiated this and in primary I just hit brick walls.

She said she'd see him again/have another appointment after the "panel" which isn't usual, because she hadn't seen school reports and didn't want him to be discharged out of the system for ASD when it's more likely ADHD. She's going to write to the school about inclusion for his unpredictable impulsive behaviour.

That sounds like a positive meeting. I have found having an actual diagnosis a big help for my daughter at Secondary school for accessing support and just general understanding of her difficulties from the teachers.

Yes overall positive. It was tricky when she was asking me about his behaviour and I'm trying to describe some awkward incidents without making son feel mega judged :/

He's not particularly sensitive about criticism but I was trying to explain to the psychiatrist how he parrots ,"the right thing to say" or how he doesn't read a room or put himself in other people's shoes... Whilst trying not to make it sound critical. Ugh. I did talk about how he does all sorts of things so well and made sure we talked about his strengths too.