To be surprised my dd is still affected by this

[Fun6665]

She took a very small amount of tablets back in 2014. She confessed to me today she still wonders why she wasn’t admitted to a CAMHS unit. Was this a common thing to happen six years ago?

What tablets? If she exhibited no detrimental affects from taking them then no. Does she have any effects now?

Tbh I wonder why she wasn't referred too. And if she was at the point where she actually took the tablets of course she will still be affected.

I was your dd when I was 16, I'm 30 now it still affects me deeply. It's something anyone ever does lightly and anyone who even considers it is in serious and significant distress.

Sounds like she feels her cry for help was brushed off maybe?

So for her that action of taking tablets was a MASSIVE deal, internally she'll have made decisions about outcomes. So even though medically it may not have been serious, she feels it was.

Admission is supposed to happen only if the patient cannot be kept safe and treated appropriately in the community. Admission is viewed as restrictive and to be avoided.

If what she took was not likely to have caused significant harm and she was not presenting as someone with high risks unmanageable outside a CAMHS unit there is no rationale for admission. It's hard to say much more because there are so many variables involved when assessing risk.

I hope she feels much better now. She can apply for her records if she thinks that might help her work through her thoughts and feelings about this?

What @ScottishStottie said.

Even if medically it wasn't enough to do any harm, the mindset of anyone in that position is not good, and very serious.

No it wasn't common 6 years ago and doesn't happen now. Where i work they come onto our general paeds ward and get seen and discharged by camhs the next day. If they need treatment for an overdose then camhs see them once the treatment has finished and then send then home.
Camhs unit's are tier 4 beds and extremely hard to get and always have been.

As other posters have explained the threshold for admissions is very high. Did she need urgent medical attention? Eg. Did she need to go to A&E?

Did she ever have any counciling for her mental health?

OP, (please don't be offended by this question, just asking based on an experience that my Niece had at school) has DD been watching docus. on youtube about in patient units for young people? I only ask because in Dniece's year 9 class, she's 21 now and no issues, a group of them had been watching docus. about an anorexia treatment centre in London, can't remember the name and all became fixated on the idea of having EDs and wanting to go there. It wasn't malicious, just their teenage brains doing strange things. It just seems odd for her to be focused on treatment, rather than what harm it could have done so far after the fact.

My ex H's GF has taken an overdose of her prescription painkillers every year since 2012. She gets her stomach pumped, is in hospital for usually 4 days and then released. She's referred to mental health services, refuses to engage with them and that's it until the next time. She's never been threatened with sectioning.

To address your thread title specifically: yabu to be surprised that your daughter is still affected by whatever caused her to want to overdose in the first place. Did she get any support for her feelings then?
It's very very difficult to get a hospital admission: as pp have said it's seen as the very last, and most undesirable option. It's also difficult to get a camhs referral. However that doesn't mean that your daughter didnt / or doesn't need support.

I wouldn’t expect a few tablets to be grounds for in patient treatment beyond managing physical effects if needed. Not now and not six years ago.

Camhs usually see in a&e and then send home or if it’s late they get admitted to the paediatric ward, Camhs see in the morning then they get discharged. Discharges get delayed if home isn’t deemed safe. Very few patients get admitted to a Tier 4 bed and it takes weeks if not months to get one.

I'm a little concerned and maybe I have totally misunderstood your OP....I see it that you are surprised that whatever caused her to take an overdose is still a problem. In my experience if she didn't get any professional help or formal support from somewhere (school, youth group or Camhs) it will bother her and grow until she seeks therapy as an adult.. potentially with even greater issues.

She was under Camhs community care at the time. She had a psychiatrist and cbt therapy for her depression. She was also on anti depressants.

Is this a cover OP? Is it more that you think she should have been? If so, please say.

No she brought it up with me. I feel like a bad mother for not doing more at the time now. I should have pushed more.

Don't feel bad op. Unless she was on a hospital ward with 24 hour 1 to 1 care due to actively trying to end her life she would not have got a camhs bed. That's the reality of camhs beds. We had a patient for 5 months with 24 hour 2 to 1 care to prevent her committing suicide on our ward. Thats how long it takes for a camhs bed. She only got the bed in the end because she stabbed a member of staff with a pair of scissors.
There is no way your daughter would have got in a camhs unit from an overdose, you couldn't have done more.

I would focus on what you can do to support her in the here and now OP. Guilt makes you focus on how you feel instead of her feelings.

I explained that resources are limited and always have been. I’ve also explained that it doesn’t mean people didn’t think she was struggling or not unwell. She’s said resources won’t as limited then and that a bed was probably available for her.

Thats not true OP. I've been a paeds nurse for 11 years and resources for camhs were probably worse then than they are now.
You have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to feel guilty for.

In our area policy would be for her to be admitted to the hospital ward overnight for surveillance and support (not CAMHS ward) and to have a mental health assessment to make a safety and follow up plan before going home. I live in a medium sized county and there were typically 1-3 adolescents a day assessed on the hospital ward after harming themselves, mainly through overdose. None of them would have been admitted to an in patient adolescent unit, they would have been followed up in the community and referred only in extremis as a last resort. OP, one thing that might be helpful is that while admissions are sometimes absolutely needed, they are also quite traumatising sometimes, because you are alongside lovely people you befriend but daily mental health crisis, distress and emotional pain of others, often experiencing psychosis or emerging eupd. And so treatment outcomes in the community are better.

OK so I think what she is expressing are feelings about being uncared for, not held in mind, vulnerable, alone etc. This is where to focus next.

How old is she now OP? I definitely think this will affect her if its not addressed now, a long term feeling of just being ignored by services and not worth taking care of?

Another paeds nurse. I work in a general unit.
We have had a lot of kids who have taken overdoses. Some on treatment for a good few days. Camhs is notified on admission then they make plans to review the young person when they are medically fit for discharge. By the sounds of it, from other paeds nurses camhs works the same in most units.

A safety plan is put in place, usually with family present. And they are discharged home. It’s very unusual unless the team is extremely concerned for the yp safety, that they would be referred on to a specialist unit. Often even if this is the case there generally aren’t beds available. We have a special room on our ward or if it’s not safe to have the yp on the ward they will be taken to the specialist adult ward in the hospital and cared for in a side room 1:1 with specially trained staff, however I’ve only seen this happen twice in 15 years, they then go on to an appropriate unit when a bed becomes available.

It’s common to think about these things but perhaps if it’s playing on her mind she needs to explore it further.

And no matter how much you pushed you wouldn’t have had her admitted to an inpatient adolescent unit if the team didn’t think it was necessary.

Can she explain to you why she thinks an inpatient bed would have been better for her ? What would she have got from that experience that she didn't get from the one she has had ? Does she think you prevented her getting an inpatient bed ?