What exactly are CAMHs supposed to treat?

[WhiteC0sm05]

Seems to be very little in our area.

Great. She said the qualification the cheaper lady has involved similar training to CP but without the same qualification so she’s cheaper. Psychotherapist I think and other titles/ experience.She has loads of experience.It doesn’t need to be a CP does it. Not even sure if this lady can do it yet.

I’m not adverse to medication but would like to try other treatment first. It would give me even more rage him being pushed onto meds without have a chance to try other treatment first.That said thanks to CAMHs we’re now running out of time, he’s school refusing for Sep. So might end up needing meds soon.

Lest anyone forgets dd was very poorly. Depressed anxious, cutting and od'ing when CAMHS did bugger all that was helpful.

She had three counselling sessions pre seeing the Consultant Psych. She didn't get with the counsellor. She saw the psychiatrist who recommended another. She had four more sessions with another counsellor. Not v helpful. She started Bit D having had a full health screening. She started Fluoxetine after a month or two and saw the psychiatrist every two to four weeks. The drugs helped. She then had a wobble re exams and CAMHS were useless again She was diagnosed WITH adhd and prescribed Ritalin. Massive improvement. She had counselling through Relate (absolutely bloody fantastic), then some pretty mediocre counselling via Heads Together. Subsequently she sees the wonderful lady at Relate from time to time as required.

Four years on she is pretty much recovered. Once diagnosed she got 4 A*A'Levels (all marks over 97%), had a gap year and just just finished her 2nd year at Cambridge.

They can recover. Sadly CAMHS rarely has anything to do with it. Does society want young people to reach rock bottom and never recover or does it want them to recover and be productive and help fund services for people in need. It seems the latter to me - God forbid an NHS leftie shoukd ever think another human who be productive and contribute if they aren't part of the super rich.

CAMHS had issues with us because we could afford private care and dd was at a private school. I am quite sure they have issues with families in less than optimal circumstances and blame them. Sadly for some young people the problems aren't due to their patients they are due to neuro developmental disabilities - that the average CAMHS nurse is ill equipped to diagnose.

Apols for typos
With very best wishes to all HCPs on thread, from
Mrs Roses

My Ds has been under camhs 5 years. He was assessed for Asd inJanuary - draft report says Asd. He was referred for assent 3 years ago , he has Adhd diagnosis already - I find the biggest problem is they don’t look at the issues as a whole .

I think though I have been lucky on the whole compared to most

@endlessginandtonic

I think there is also some tension inherent in the service between medication/non medication. Which I have been reflecting on since moving to the USA and observing how child mental health is addressed. My personal view is that the USA is too quick to give dc formal diagnosis and medicate and the UK may actually be too slow. I don't think the UK's dc would benefit from everything becoming a diagnosis with medication but I do think that there are some dc who would benefit from easier access to medication, which in the area I worked in was extremely hard for anyone to access.

Yes, I found that to generally be true, although of course, our own experience was late on, with the child being nearly 11. Even the UK therapeutic social worker said it was quite a plus that he had got so far without needing medication but that he most definitely needed it then and there, which she nor any of the others could access so he was left without and had been left without it, or the access to further diagnoses of both OCD, which was then obvious, and ADHD, which I had queried several years before with the community paed who simpered at me and told me 'He has autism.' Well, yes, we knew that already.

He only fully benefited from the adjunct therapies once he was stable of the other two conditions a couple of months after starting the drug therapy.

But he's a lucky and privileged child, so many others are not so. What is it costing in total? Because if this child had not been able to access what he has, then he'd already be failing out of school, but now he's able to progress well, his intelligence is not impaired, and has every hope of attending university to pursue his desired goals of engineering.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Cambridge university is actually the best mental health service I've been under, which doesn't say much for mental health services.

@OhTheRoses Interesting how you believe CAMHS had issues with you because of your circumstances because I felt that CAMHS set out with the sole intention at pointing the finger at family life being to blame for dd's difficulties as well, even though there was never any suggestion from dd or her referrals from school and GP that family issues were a factor.

@hiredandsqueak absolutely. No attempt to look for an actual clinical issue that was causing the problem. In dd's case ADHD - a neuro-developmental disorder. CAMHS didn't actually think that was possible in a 17 year old. But lots of attempts to parent blame - snide comments about middle class girls and middle class expectations.

NICE guidelines say they should be treated without stigma. We are detecting a huge whiff of stigma in our son’s case.

@OhTheRoses In dd's case they didn't need to look for neuro-developmental reasons, dd had been diagnosed with ASD age 2. In every other clinical setting they would recognise that a girl with an ASD diagnosis at 2 had pretty significant autism.
That I supplied them with reports from independent psychologist, speech therapist and OT detailing dd's needs and the impact of autism on her you would think would have led them to consider how they could best meet her needs. But no, they allocated her a PMHW with no experience of ASD who had only standard CBT as an answer to everything. When the reports detailed dd's social interaction difficulties, her communication problems and her rigid thinking which all pointed to CBT not being suitable.
Indeed at my second complaint the Head of CAMHS said on reading the reports that CBT wasn't suitable for dd yet couldn't explain why we had been offered only this for months and then even more of the same when I complained when they proposed to discharge dd.
That dd needed PBS but couldn't have PBS because of her IQ is another story and another complaint.

The cahms known as cyps in my area has nothing to do with funding. It is the staff that are appalling and failing children. The way they come across and lie on paper is disgusting. They make children feel worse leaving that place as there’s nothing a matter with them. I’m on a long road of fighting as there was nothing a matter with my son but in January he had to have brain surgery. The amount of failings I have on record is enough to make any child want to kill them selves. I’m not stopping til I get my son help even though they said can he not wait 6 months then he will be able to go on the adult mental health team. These people have blood on their hands and the whole lot of them needs sacked

theunperfectparent

Disgusting isn't it? Their existance made my son's situation 10 times worst, wrong assumptions due to lack of knowledge, all on their report. My son was never suicidal until they kept talking to him as if he is suicidal!!!

We knew we were not getting where with them, he have gone private - best thing ever, his med stopped him from suffering (so badly). It is extremely expensive so we can only afford part treatment which we feel the most effective.

My son is only 13, still a while before he can be treated as adult. :(

I feel so sad for all these teenagers in need :(

Families simply can't win. If they're poor it's due to socioeconomic disadvantage, if they're rich it's due to expectations being too high, if the family is blended it's a dysfunctional background, if parents care thwe're overprotective. Everything is the fault of the family, never a clinical condition that needs to be treated/managed.

After dd spent 90 minutes with the consultant psychiatrist I was so relieved that from everything dd had told her she shared that dd had a very good life and we needed to focus on the clinical causes to make her feel better.

I also think it's worth mentioning that therapists are a bit like shoes and you need to try a few before you get the right fit. CAMHS is not managed like that and it is not acknowledged. There is no easy way to change and if there is no connection it is always the fault of the child or young person who will not engage.

Worstyear2020
I feel you I am glad you were able to go private but it’s still not on you should not have to pay. I looked into going down that route earlier on and i got quoted £5000 for the assessments. A week ago 90% of ‘professionals’ agreed my son needed sectioned and here we are still waiting for help. Even his neuro Drs aren’t bothered as they don’t have to live in hell while we have to fight. He got discharged from hospital and no support what so ever. They should take away the service then at least that way no children’s/families feel like they are getting somewhere when really they are just getting false promises.

@DobbinTheFool I'm assuming the meeting was an EHCP review and the private psychotherapy is funded through the EHCP much like my dd's MH support is funded through her placement at independent specialist so in effect education pay for health needs.
Knowing Herts. LA to be particularly poor then either the head of SEND/commissioning manager had an epiphany that day or an awful lot of the story has been missed out to suit the agenda of the article.

Do any of you have any tips re my meeting with the higher up lady who is going to “reassess” my son?

theunperfectparent, exactly. They really are there to make matters worst, I didn't look for private until after a lot of struggle and tears, eventually we knew he is not going to be treated then we started to look for private, this also has to be referred by our GP, all of these took time. We wasted so much time on nothing because of this false hope. My son hasn't been in school since Jan, then it is the lockdown, they have no idea how much impact they have done to a child.

WhiteC0sm05, sorry no tips from me, I just want to wish you best of luck.

Very poor experience here, I’m afraid. Very late teen child re-referred again. Just completed the pre-assessment questionnaire again. Bearing in mind they are seeing the GP completely independently of me and I don’t know what is happening other than some comms from school. I refused this time to answer the questions about how well my child plays or shares with other children or whether they prefer adult company to children. They are a late teen. Sort it out for goodness sake and get an age appropriate questionnaire. Make sure they are not being see one the room with the play therapy dollshouse and toys out. Nurse was also terrible and we had to complain to PALS. They need to overhaul it. It’s needs an acute and specialist side. Then a lower level intervention approach that is delivered locally in communities, schools and homes. Some areas may have this. But what is there now is not fit for purpose and a lot is gatekeeping as GPs can’t prescribe to under 18s.

Yes threat of Judicial Review finally moved our LA but they had dragged their feet every step of the way until that point. Now we are in the ridiculous position of them paying for independent specialist alongside a private tutor because they were so keen to “meet their statutory duty” after ignoring it for months that dd gets a private tutor funded at £95ph Until she is in school full time. Lockdown means she isn’t yet in school full time so LA continue to pay for the tutor as well.

All I want is him properly diagnosed by a proper professional, necessary treatment outlined and proper treatment not websites ASAP. I am suspecting it’s severe depression and anxiety. If medication is necessary alongside so be it. We think he is the victim of discrimination for reasons I’m not going to go in to. We’ve checked the equalities act and NICE guidelines, contacted relevant agencies for advice. I am furious and will be pursuing a complaint for discrimination, unprofessionalism and utter shiteness regardless of outcome. Clearly the more parents who do the better.