CAMHS and crisis team

Formyson15 · 2022-10-24T18:40:09+00:00

My son tried to end his life last week. After not being taken seriously begging for help etc. CAMHS are financially listening. He's spoken/seen CAMHS and they are referring to a clinical psychologists who work in the same team but are for more urgent /complex cases. I'm just wondering once CAMHS were involved did your child get the help they needed? Ds is also frustrated that the crises team kept telling him how he feels. Also told them that he's gay/bi and then they kept going on that he can have counselling from a team that's more trained in lbgt. And he told them no that side of things are not an issue. He feels like they are looking for if to be an issue. I'm just wondering other people's experience

Original poster

Formyson15 · 25/10/2022 09:59

B

OP posts:

Sigma33 · 25/10/2022 10:16

I'm sorry to hear how much your son is struggling.

DD's school found out she had suicidal plans about a year ago, and recommended I take her to A&E for an emergency assessment. The person doing the assessment was excellent (after a far less impressive psych did an assessment 10 months before and decided DD didn't meet the threshold as she hadn't actively tried to kill herself...)

They said (basically) that it was astonishing that she was able to function so well despite PTSD from her early life with birth family, and advocated strongly for her to be accepted onto the waiting list even though she hadn't actually attempted suicide (yes, it usually has to get that bad before they will act).

It took about 3 months before she started seeing the CAMHS psychologist.

Our visit to A&E triggered an automatic child protection referral, and during their assessment I was asked if I thought we needed support and I said we did. Which seemed to rather confuse them... however, we were under the Early Help team for a few months, and I don't know if that speeded things up.

From my perspective we got a few visits from a lovely Early Help worker who just chatted and admitted that she wasn't used to working with families who didn't have multiple social and medical challenges and didn't really know what we were supposed to be 'working' on! There were regular three-way meetings between her, me and DD's school which were reassuring as it meant school and I were keeping a close eye on things together.

A year on DD is in a good place mentally, and about to have a specialist assessment through post-adoption that should lead to further therapeutic input, and is being assessed for ADHD when we get to the top of that waiting list. She had her final session with CAMHS a few weeks ago.

I hope your wait isn't too long. It's a horrible place to be.

Original poster

Formyson15 · 25/10/2022 14:45

Sigma33 · 25/10/2022 10:16

I'm sorry to hear how much your son is struggling.

DD's school found out she had suicidal plans about a year ago, and recommended I take her to A&E for an emergency assessment. The person doing the assessment was excellent (after a far less impressive psych did an assessment 10 months before and decided DD didn't meet the threshold as she hadn't actively tried to kill herself...)

They said (basically) that it was astonishing that she was able to function so well despite PTSD from her early life with birth family, and advocated strongly for her to be accepted onto the waiting list even though she hadn't actually attempted suicide (yes, it usually has to get that bad before they will act).

It took about 3 months before she started seeing the CAMHS psychologist.

Our visit to A&E triggered an automatic child protection referral, and during their assessment I was asked if I thought we needed support and I said we did. Which seemed to rather confuse them... however, we were under the Early Help team for a few months, and I don't know if that speeded things up.

From my perspective we got a few visits from a lovely Early Help worker who just chatted and admitted that she wasn't used to working with families who didn't have multiple social and medical challenges and didn't really know what we were supposed to be 'working' on! There were regular three-way meetings between her, me and DD's school which were reassuring as it meant school and I were keeping a close eye on things together.

A year on DD is in a good place mentally, and about to have a specialist assessment through post-adoption that should lead to further therapeutic input, and is being assessed for ADHD when we get to the top of that waiting list. She had her final session with CAMHS a few weeks ago.

I hope your wait isn't too long. It's a horrible place to be.

Thank you for replying sorry your daughter vhas Been through a difficult time . It sounds like she's getting there though which is great .

So it seems almost routine that CAMHS don't do anything unless our children try to end their life. So what about the children that actually do end their life after begging for help

Ds is seeing a clinical psychologists on Friday so I guess we will see what happens from there.

We were also referred to social services. But I have declined their early help as ds is extremely paranoid and thinks everyone is out to get him. So I don't want to many people around and for him to back off.

OP posts:

thesunwillout · 25/10/2022 14:47

Unfortunately never had any consistent help.
I've never heard of anyone getting help.

It's dire

Sistanotcista · 25/10/2022 14:48

OP, I don’t have any advice, but just wanted to send you a hug. I hope you are able to get the help you need for your son.

Original poster

Formyson15 · 25/10/2022 16:33

Sistanotcista · 25/10/2022 14:48

OP, I don’t have any advice, but just wanted to send you a hug. I hope you are able to get the help you need for your son.

Thank you . 😊

OP posts:

petalpower · 25/10/2022 16:59

Sorry to hear that your son is struggling @Formyson15 . Hope you get the help you need. Are you aware of Papyrus as a support organisation?
www.papyrus-uk.org/

Original poster

Formyson15 · 25/10/2022 21:23

petalpower · 25/10/2022 16:59

Sorry to hear that your son is struggling @Formyson15 . Hope you get the help you need. Are you aware of Papyrus as a support organisation?
www.papyrus-uk.org/

Thank you. I will take a look

OP posts:

Silkierabbit · 25/10/2022 21:49

So sorry to hear about your son. Mine is suspected asd and been on waitlists for assessments for 4 years, periodically they see him and say can't assess, he is also very difficult to get to engage, found cahms useless, massively underfunded. Then his school said can't meet needs a month after I had cancer diagnosed and called police on him several times for trying to hide at school in their fields which made him very distressed. He then did not trust professionals and then we got cahms involved at the highest level he had to be taken to hospital. I was expecting just 24 hours in there but a month later looks like will be in for months and can't get him out. He is mute and they say they are waiting until he talks. In about a month at the moment, first hospital he was handcuffed and held down by 4 big security guards, was horrific. New hospital is better but he is in catatonia from the fear of what happened at first one, a month in, he is worse than when he went in and miss him terribly. He has made a few small improvements. Also brought social services who provide zero support and very hard to get hold of. He has a psychiatrist and psychotherapists in there but no intervention has worked apart from one soft toy. The room he is held in is quite bleak, a bathroom with no door and cctv watching him all day and a bed and that is it.

Original poster

Formyson15 · 26/10/2022 21:31

Silkierabbit · 25/10/2022 21:49

So sorry to hear about your son. Mine is suspected asd and been on waitlists for assessments for 4 years, periodically they see him and say can't assess, he is also very difficult to get to engage, found cahms useless, massively underfunded. Then his school said can't meet needs a month after I had cancer diagnosed and called police on him several times for trying to hide at school in their fields which made him very distressed. He then did not trust professionals and then we got cahms involved at the highest level he had to be taken to hospital. I was expecting just 24 hours in there but a month later looks like will be in for months and can't get him out. He is mute and they say they are waiting until he talks. In about a month at the moment, first hospital he was handcuffed and held down by 4 big security guards, was horrific. New hospital is better but he is in catatonia from the fear of what happened at first one, a month in, he is worse than when he went in and miss him terribly. He has made a few small improvements. Also brought social services who provide zero support and very hard to get hold of. He has a psychiatrist and psychotherapists in there but no intervention has worked apart from one soft toy. The room he is held in is quite bleak, a bathroom with no door and cctv watching him all day and a bed and that is it.

Omg I'm so so sorry thus gas happend to you /your son. It does not sound right at all. Has he been sectioned? Could you bring him home. It sounds abusive it seems criminals are treated better. Sorry I don't know what to say . I know it must be breaking your heart.

OP posts:

Pumpkinpatchlookinggood · 26/10/2022 21:35

My dd 15 took a serious OD in August.. Cahms were really good tbh. 5 days in hospital.. 6 initial appointments at a local place. A few issues identified and a series of tailored therapy sessions offered to start next week. Can't fault them.

Silkierabbit · 26/10/2022 21:38

Thank you, yes he has been sectioned first for 24 hours then for 28 days and now for 6 months. Had no idea they would do this, we thought we were just agreeing to a day in hospital when a psychiatrist would see him and do maybe some bloods but they sectioned him first time for trying to resist. Then next day sectioned again and its just continued from there. Its so sad to see him terrified in there, current place is much better but he is so traumatised from how taken in and first hospital he is frozen in fear and catatonic. So of course they won't release him like that but he isn't getting better. No idea how or when this will end, they say they are waiting for him to talk again but he's been selective mute like pretty much all his life.

thebestsellingshow · 26/10/2022 21:45

We had daily visits from the crisis team and the psychiatrist visited every two weeks. We had a number we could call at any time. This was as an alternative to being an inpatient as dd has ASD. Can't fault them to be honest. It was the darkest period of my life and their support got us all through it. It's beyond belief that this doesn't seem to be the case for everyone. So sorry for everyone going through this