Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, thus CAMHS

[chocolatelife]

Why do posters insists on calling it CAHMS?

is it so it is untraceable?

Saw this on FB and thought of this thread :)

To be fair they are incredibly under funded and stretched beyond their limit

I'm so sick of that 'underfunded' line being trotted out, like it excuses unemotional, heartless, finger pointing behaviour from supposed professionals. Same goes for SS. I think the biggest issue is, services such as these are not governed as they should be, too much time trying to tell the NHS what to do, social welfare services are left to run riot. Time the government actually took them in hand, instead of letting them do as they please. Maybe there would be far less cock ups in future.

Yes that's true, although I can't help but feel that they waste a lot of resources by skirting issues rather than directing families to appropriate support sooner.
In my area they seem to specialise in using what little money they have in fobbing off parents. Then when a child actually self harms, there is very little support because they are stretched beyond their limit.
I have a theory that if they actually supported a child before they get to that point, it would cost far less in the long run.

I've said this before, but ds1 was referred to CAMHS a couple of years ago. He was bullied to the point of us having to take him out of school. Someone came to our house three times to assess his/our needs, ds became the most lovely boy on earth when she was there, which was all an act and she didn't see through it at all, and didn't consider that we were telling the truth about him, because, you know, parents are liars .
We then had 7 months of family therapy, each session taking up the time of 4 highly trained individuals - 1 in the room with us, 3 watching everything and making notes, then coming into the room at the end to tell us how well we were doing. Ds wouldn't engage so that was that, they didn't peruse it.
We were signed off after 7 months, during which time nothing changed. Ds is still having all the difficulties he was having, but they're not interested. So that's 7 months of hour long sessions with 4 people. Would it not have been cheaper for ds to have had a few individual sessions with just one of those people who could then get to know him and then spot these difficulties?

Same for ds2, he possibly has asd, threatens suicide regularly, wishes he was dead, is a very angry little boy. We were sent on a parenting course that was pointless for him. Yet another waste of resources. We have been offered another referral for family therapy, but so far haven't taken it up as we know from experience that it will change nothing and help no-one. We know what issues he has, we know what support he needs, and until someone acknowledges that and actually listens to us for a change (but they're not because again, parents are apparently liars) until that point, nothing is going to change.

Rant over :)

I thought it was CWOT. Condescending Waste Of Time. Even two years down the line.

I don't care if it's underfunded. Don't tell me every time I ring that X is in a meeting and will call me back in a minute. Don't tell my daughter to ring anytime and they'll let her know re therapy and then go into radio silence.

and completely agree with the last 4 posts above too.

My dc refused to go back after two sessions of family therapy. The odd bod running it wouldn't let you explain yourself cut in and got the issues all wrong.

I managed to work out the problem myself after years of research, found the right HCP'S, paid and we got dx. We had numerous rare PHYSICAL health conditions. Thanks CAMHS and the previous HCP'S who made us feel frustrated and knocked our conference making us think our real symptoms were not real.