What exactly are CAMHs supposed to treat?

[WhiteC0sm05]

Seems to be very little in our area.

You can say they're underfunded (which they are) and you can say they are struggling due to budget cuts (which they are) but how do you explain how shit they are when you do get through?

Surely it should be, 'the bar is really high to get seen, it took 8 months to get seen, but my god, when we got there the counsellor was fantastic'

Instead of 'bar is high, 8 months to get seen, and shit counsellor, nothing has changed'

I don't understand. Are we not paying or seeking out good quality qualified counsellors due to lack of funding? What sort of training goes into it?

I work in a school, referring children is very difficult, some really REALLY need to be seen, and then when they are, the help is not good enough. I think we do a better job of listening to them/helping them TBH.

I think given the amount of mental health issues there are, having a bigger and better pastoral team within school means they could get access straight away. Obviously need the budget for that too though.

My child's OD didn't make the criteria for going on the waiting list. She's had some support from school (certain teachers have been stars, others not so much). Health service, nothing.

Because they're so stretched?

@TitsalinaBumSquash it is horrendous how badly your son has been failed. Incredible that you weren't advised about SSEN (as they were then) when your child was a pre schooler much less in all the years since.
So first steps is to request an EHC needs assessment. All the information you need us here Don't be afraid to get support from IPSEA or SOSSEN at any point.
Be prepared to fight because it is a fight worth winning. Dd has had a SSEN/EHCP since before she started nursery. Because of the EHCP she gets daily/weekly input from SALT, OT, psychotherapist psychologist, asd specific counselling etc all services not available or accessible in our CCG.

Who the fuck knows. My teenage daughter got her CAHMS referral rejected despite her psychologist indicating she likely has PTSD and possibly bipolar.

I’ve been shocked at the lack of expertise, professionalism and knowledge. That surely isn’t a money issue

It signifies exhaustion and a lack of training to me, almost as if they are underfunded! People go into careers like this to make a difference and are devastated that they can’t because of restrictions.

No team for that I’m guessing. What am I paying taxes and NI for if we don’t get the help we need?

They aren’t getting the money, the money is going to private services that have unprofessional links to the government that are conflicts of interest.

Also there is an issue that these services are so tough to work in as the volume of work is beyond a joke, so there is super high staff turnover and the best staff leave...

Sadly CAHMS is woefully underfunded. It did take two major suicide attempts (which each involved several days in hospital) before my DD was taken seriously. We've now got a brilliant team with them and she is seen regularly. We were on a waiting list of over 2 years for an Autism test. My did has also been in residential mental health units and (luckily!!) she was tested at one of them. We would probably still be on the waiting list. She is now waiting to go up to adult services and that was a fight to be even considered. God knows what that will be like. Keep persevering, and do complain to PALS (our local CAHMS recommended we do it!) as you do get a response and it did get things moving. Good luck, it's a horrible place to be.

@minielise Quite.

Because staff morale is so shit and they constantly hear from parents how shit they are. That's why the service is shit. Fund it better, get more staff, see more kids then everyone gets what they want and need. You don't call mental health the Cinderella service for nothing. Ridiculous all round.

I have struggled to even get CAMHS to look at my DS, because he has severe anxiety but also ASD, they say his anxiety is caused by his ASD and so therefore have offered either CBT ( which DS cant access) or parenting classes. They decided this based on a referral form the school did.

Its shit and its left us without any help for anxiety for months.

Nope Glut has nailed it. They’re shit and over stretched.

I’ve had to wait for several medical departments over the years but always had good care once there. The level of shitness when you get through to CAMHs is truly shocking. I actually think most of my colleagues could deliver better.

A long wait for quality would save so much money. The maj see nobody anyway so why don’t they just get rid of them.

And yes, its shit because its underfunded. I feel for the staff, but when DS is refusing to go outside or go to school and I cant get any help at all (beyond parenting classes in 6 months) it makes me feel angry.

Must be the area then as my daughter was accepted with asd.

About 12 years ago I temped in the office of a CAMHS inpatient hospital with about 20 beds, which were all filled with anorexia patients.

So who can we complain to other than Pals and MP? I want to complain for the kids without a pita mum.

Why isn’t there an enquiry?

nothing here(rural valleys of south wales)they are not interested or i get your out of our area

as we are rural the hospital is a 50 minute drive away and technically classed as a different region as the health and school system here is weird,you can only go to you local villages doctor surgery or local school.i tried years ago to go tot he next villages one as we was not being listened to regarding disabilities but was refused

i have 2 kids
15 y old has 8 disabilities the 9y old 7
both include asd,neither sleep and both need 24/7 care(we home educate)

we have never been accepted by cahms or got/get any professional support of any one or any where
my oldest even had a mental breakdown at 10 and as he wasnt suicidal they wasnt interested

we gave up trying years ago and just deal with it

We have been incredibly lucky with CAMHS support for DS1. However, DS3 hasn't had much support from them.

White I think the important bit of the exclusion criteria is "normal." For instance DS1 has PTSD related to a bereavement. If he hadn't reacted so badly to the bereavement then he wouldn't have been seen, because everyone needs to adjust, but he was/is seen because his response is outside what would be considered normal.

Titsalinabumsquash I wouldn't bother with mediation. Many LAs use it to drag everything out. Just get the certificate and go to tribunal. You may find they concede when they see you are serious.

Talking about funding is missing the point though. Our society is broken. It makes people mentally ill when they wouldn't otherwise be.

It's more fundamental than just throwing money at it (which might not even be needed if there were far fewer people requiring the service in the first place).

But normal could be applied to anything. You could experience something horrendous and then not get support even if it destroyed your life. How long is a piece of string?It’s a get out clause.

I love how under funding is being blamed. I've worked for 12 years in a service which has the misfortune to often had to interact with CAMHS. With a few exceptions the service is poorly organised, patronising, poor knowledge based and quite frankly hiding incompetence behind blaming no money

Sexnotgender
Same to my boy, our GP can only refer psychiatrists/pyschogists via camhs, guess what, camhs refused ro refer him despite requested by GP after a huge struggle (sent report from private psychologist who said my son is likely need medicarion). My son suffered so badly that he missed months of school since. We finally seen a private psychiatrist and he was immediately put on medication. The first thing our psychiatrist said to us was "That's appalling!" when we told her about camhs and GP. My son has psychosis, he was not able to function without medication, his life was at risk.

The lack of medical knowledge and professionalism in camhs is such an issue, how could a non medical person have the power to stop a ill person getting the treatment that they desperately need? We have seen private psychologist, senior doctor who is a family friends and also our neighbour who happen to be a psychiatrist too. They all agree that he needed to be seen immediately.

We are lucky still have jobs to pay for the private medical fee.

CAMHS is a total failure - at least in my area anyway.

@WhiteC0sm05 you can try www.healthwatch.co.uk/here In Derbyshire Healthwatch are compiling a report on CAMHS currently probably as a result of all the vociferous parents would be good if the interest was national.

@TitsalinaBumSquash you are being fed a line. If the EHC needs assessment had been refused you would have received a letter advising you of this and giving you details of how to make an appeal to SENDIST. It would be you and not the SENCo attending mediation. Something doesn't ring true. Were you even asked to contribute to the request? Don't bother with mediation at any stage it's just time wasting IMO, get a mediation certificate and push on for appeal.

I’ve been shocked at the lack of expertise, professionalism and knowledge. That surely isn’t a money issue

It is a money issue.
I worked closely with CAMHS and they referred dc to our specialist therapeutic service ( funded by a charity).
As CAMHS became gradually defunded over the last decade they recruited more family center workers/school parenting support workers and fewer specialized therapists.
It made sense given their caseloads because you could probably recruit two of them for one of someone with a skills/experience set similar to myself, let alone a psychiatrist costs.
But although more people get seen the level of training and expertise will be less.
Good mental health training is time consuming and expensive. It isn't feasible to offer when you have tiny budgets and short term contracts.