To think DS needs professional help urgently?

[JugheadismyHero]

Ds11 just broke down on me. Showed me a note he's written saying "kill me before I do something". He says he thinks about killing him self every night.

Wtf do I do!?!?

He's in no danger at the moment as far as I'm aware but who knows?

Do I phone 111 or do I wait until morning??

Do I take him to a&e??

When he was 10 he would walk out in front of cars, he would drop his dads weights onto his feet or legs to hurt himself. We saw gp's, cyps who said he wasn't depressed, wasn't suicidal. Even though he told them he was!!

He had counselling and we thought he had gone past this but now...

I'm just lost, someone help me to help him..

My DD has ocd and got intrusive thoughts to harm herself. I can honestly say CBT, with a therapist who she gelled with immediately, saved her life.
She was 11 and had visions of slitting her throat and blood all the time. She had a complete breakdown.
She only needed 6 or 7 sessions, we were lucky that my mum paid for them.
She has always been anxious and is definitely on the autistic spectrum.

does your financial situation give you any possibility to consider getting help privately @JugheadismyHero?

costs in your area may vary but an initial assessment with a child psychologist would be around £120, with ongoing treatment sessions a bit less. not many families could afford that long term but if you could scrape together the cash for even just a few sessions that might give you some pointers as to what help to start agitating for from the NHS/camhs.

There's no way I could afford to pay privately, I really wish I could

Have you tried approaching local private therapies to ask if they offer free/reduced price services?

I've said it before, not sure if on this thread, but Relate now offer adolescent counselling. We paid £30 per session and said money was no object. Partly becsuse dd gelled and partly due to high quality was the best counselling dd had and hers ranged from IAPT ? at £110 per session to Heads Together via CAMHS.

Worth inquiring.

Jughead we went privately and it wasn't a success; also the private psychiatrist then refused to hand the case over to CAMHS when our insurance ran out - if your son likes that counsellor its worth waiting but just be prepared to go back to the GP etc if things get worse.

Did you get any advice from Young Minds in the end BTW?

PS - if you can afford it, and bearing in mind how desperate I know things can get, I certainly wouldn't rule out going private if you can find someone suitable. Didn't want the OP or anyone else to think I was saying oh no that's not a good idea, but just that its not always best - you need someone that your child can gel with.

I phrased my last post badly. Relate wouldn't charge more than £30 despite a high income (not trying to be wanky) so may charge a lot less.

Learnt that counselling is v dependent on personal synergies and they have to kuss a few frogs to get the right one.