Anyone with experience of camhs not admitting to units

[busyweeks78]

A friends dd who’s 17 took a small overdose didn’t require treatment. She says she still feels unsafe camhs have said they won’t admit her. Is this common practice? The lady said it’s uncommon for them to admit after one incident and it’s been this way for a number of years.

After my teenager took an overdose, they didn't even want to see her, let alone admit her!

That’s terrible hope things are better for her now.

As an adult I was told they would only admit me if I successfully completed suicide, as trying and failing wasn't good enough.

They didn't seem to grasp that that would be impossible.

Yes, my dd has taken numerous relatively small overdoses and cut her arm, once very badly. They’ve been very reluctant to admit her as they said kids will learn new ways of self harming from the other kids in there.
It’s usually a night on the children’s ward, seen by the camhs crisis team and discharged, with a follow up appointment a few days later.

Speaking as someone who spent a lot of time in adolescent psych units as a teenager - it’s really hard to get admitted. There’s no few beds there’s really nowhere to put all those that need it. If she’s saying she feels unsafe she should be a higher priority but I can see why they aren’t just admitting her straight away.

@Papergirl1968 my self harm got much worse after being inpatient with other self harmers. It’s not that I learned new ways, more that seeing others showed me how much further I could actually go

They need to invest in more support in the community, units absolutely aren't the best option for a lot of people, but similarly just doing nothing is no help either. Hope she manages to get some tangible support which actually helps.

My 17 year old family member spent 3 nights on a trolley in A&E the week before Xmas. There were no beds in the whole of England for him. This was after he’d taken a large overdose and was extremely paranoid, hearing voices etc.
He’s been an inpatient maybe 4 times in the past. This time was harder to get a bed because he’s not 16 anymore so not a child, but isn’t an adult either. There seems to be a grey area for that age group, god knows why.

There is a big drive not to medicalise teenage sadness or anxiety.
If a child was psychotic or similar a bed would be found, but for a small OD or superficial self harm an admission could be counter productive, the child could be exposed to behaviours that would be extremely harmful.
Personally and professionally I think this is the correct way, but it must be very hard for you

Inpatient admissions aren't very helpful for most people but young people especially, the outcomes following an admission to a CAMHS acute unit can actually be a lot poorer than staying in the community. Community teams offer intensive support and therapy that wards simply do not - the best and most joined up care is outpatient and that really is the best option. Even people at high risk can be kept in the community with the right support. Not only can CAMHS units be really detrimental to a young person's wellbeing in terms of their behaviour (like someone else mentioned, picking up new ways to self-injure) it can also be extremely traumatic. I had multiple admissions to CAMHS units when I was under CAMHS and honestly I am still recovering from some of the things I experienced (and the ward I was on most was considered "outstanding" by the CQC so that puts into perspective how crappy the rest of them are...). Honestly trust the professionals who are trying their best to keep her in the community because that really is the best place to be.

I sure the previous posters are right about it being best to stay in the community, my family member seems to barely ever leave his room on the ward and isn’t having any treatment other than drugs (which aren’t working for him).

Thank you for replies Seems it’s not that uncommon to not admit then.

As an adult I was told they would only admit me if I successfully completed suicide, as trying and failing wasn't good enough

Well that was kindof what happened to us. Her heart stopped beating and had to be resuscitated. Once she got to the heart stopping part they had no choice but to admit her long term.

It's true, they do learn new ways to self harm. What, I won't mention here obviously.

.