What exactly are CAMHs supposed to treat?

[WhiteC0sm05]

Seems to be very little in our area.

I’m starting to think I’m going to push for it alongside any support we get, if we do.😩

What’s a psychiatric appointment like?

It was a telephone appointment. She spoke to me and spoke to DS. She filled in a depression assessment over the phone, took DS history and family history of mental illness then made her diagnosis. Took about 90 minutes.

Does she give you info about the medication?

Yes. I'd already looked up the guidelines so I knew it would be fluoxetine. She went through the side effects and dose and how long he would need them. She will send written information in the post then when I've read that I can call and request the prescription.

I once attended a TAF meeting for a primary aged child, the brother of one of my secondary SEND pupils.
The mother told the assembled professionals that the younger boy had (amongst other scary behaviours) taken a knife to her (he was disarmed before he could cut her.) She was really frightened of him and worried about her two infant children.
We turned, as one, to the CAMHS representative who said that it wasn't a mental health problem so nothing to do with CAMHS. That was his first and last contribution to the meeting.

@rosegoldwatcher That sounds like a behavioural problem or part of a neurodevelopmental problem rather than a mental health problem per se but both of these should come under the CAMHS remit anyway, so that's poor

that's poor

And everybody was shocked.

@JoyFreeCake - Yes to be fair, everyone was shocked at his total shut down. I was certainly thinking - "Well what are you actually for?"

@gypsywater - well of course the act itself was a problem with the child's behaviour which stemmed from? CAMHS, I think, should be the platform to help unpick the issues and get to the root of why the child was displaying such behaviours.
In 6 and a half years of being a secondary SENCo I never once managed to secure anything useful from CAMHS.

Not really on topic but the beginning of the end, for me, of being able to access SEN experts was the withdrawal of local central specialist services including Ed Psych, ASD, SpLD - this happened in about 2012(?) Suddenly these could only be bought in (for ££££) Which, in the main we couldn't. because, you know, budgets.

Aren’t depression and anxiety often caused by life events?

I don't know about CAMHS but clinical depression or clinical anxiety (requiring medical treatment) are when reactions to life events are very excessive.

Eg a person without mh issues will likely feel very anxious before an exam, or somewhat low/depressed if they lose their job or suffer a bereavement These are emotional responses. They will be able to function overall despite these emotions, even if sometimes they have bad days etc - this is normal.

A person with clinical anxiety may face crippling anxiety over something which should not induce anxiety in a healthy person - a trip to the supermarket etc.

A person with clinical depression may succumb to bouts of feeling low despite there being no obvious factors.

fairgame84, your ds is very lucky, this is so rare. To be honest, my son wouldn't able to survive that long without medication. He was not able to function at all, he suffered like he lost his mind, lost his reality. I can't believe camhs aren't even trained to spot psychosis symptoms yet anyone who has these symptoms suppose to see a psychiatrist via camhs!

@Worstyear2020
I totally realise how lucky he is. I think if I was a bog standard parent with a kid in a mainstream school then I would have got nowhere.
The fact that he attends a specialist school with ongoing psychology input and im a paeds nurse on the local ward and know the camhs team has helped massively. It's wrong because it shouldn't be like this. It should be the same access for everyone.

The system is failing many CAMHS services have sent a 100% increase in referrals last year and similar in preceeding years. At the same time staff have been cut year on year. So a tinder box of increasing need and decreasing resources . Think being a young person growing up nowadays is increasingly stressful : unregulated social media, target driven education and an awareness of dire opportunities, social mobility is actually going backwards. Ultimately these services cannot deliver a universal or even tertiary service. The tender of these services to virgin and other private bidders has grown (Surrey, South West) and services will continue to deteriorate in this context.
They need to be properly funded and mental health cannot continue to be the poor relation to physical health given that the result of substandard mental health care can be so devastating.

@applecatchers36 If I could mark your post with a thumbs up I would.

My son is having suicidal thoughts and is severely depressed. Young Minds call back told me that the bar is so high and CAMHs assessment a snapshot so he may not score high enough on his next assessment. He is in a higher risk suicide group. His life is on hold and he has already gone through enough,he is really struggling as are we.It’s just appalling. It seems clear many families are also experiencing a bad service from CAMHs that can’t be excused by funding.

Why are kids being hugely let down?

Why is it not being more widely reported and something done?

@WhiteC0sm05
I self reported to social services and they have put us under the early intervention people. They work with school and camhs for a whole perspective apparently. For me, Ds and Dd if she wants to-shes the one under camhs so if she doesn't there's still stuff they can do for us to support her. They do defer to camhs but after I told camhs I'd self referred they are now wanting a meeting to see what support they can give us surprise surprise.
I'm not suggesting it as a fix but it's moved very quickly. I telephoned Monday, reply tuesday, assigned a key worker Friday who is doing the assessment on Monday. And she's already contacted school for their records.now obviously this is in my area, and I don't know what services are like elsewhere.

Have you taken him to a and e when he feels that way? That's what I did with Dd.

Young minds said there are 4 stages of suicide and he sounds like he’s just in the first, thinking about it. Not planning etc. I couldn’t justify going to AandE.

Can’t help thinking we’ll just be left until he goes up a stage. Stuff getting him well so it doesn’t ever get to that stage.

God it's so awful
The triage nurse when we went said we were the 4th in a row that night for the same reason
There are so many suffering and with no real help available