To ask if you've had a positive experience with CAMHs

[Pancakeswithchocolate]

We are currently going through the assessment with DS and, if we make threshold, will go on a waiting list for treatment. It feels like such hard work to try and get some help and I've heard such negative experiences of the CAMHs service. Has anyone had a positive experience? And for those who it's been less positive do you have any advice of how to avoid this?

@Doorkeeper

Well, *@giggly*, I don't give a fuck about your taking offence. I do give a fuck about the way CAMHS treated my DS, when he was at the lowest, most vulnerable point in his life, and I also give a fuck about his now baked-in inability to approach adult mental health services, since he cannot face going through how CAMHS treated him again. CAMHS has taught him to expect rejection when he begs for help from mental health services.

I think your missing the words “the CAMHS team I dealt with”so I will take offence at your ridiculous sweeping statement. Always interesting to hear of non medical experts opinions

@Doorkeeper sorry uneducated was harsh. I simply mean please don’t blame the staff as (most, I know not all) are desperately trying to keep their heads above water and are fore fighting every day against ever increasing pressure/ funding cuts/ increasing risk assessment criteria… this lack of decent mental health care for children needs to improve. I fully agree so many children are being let down and fobbed off. Hence why I couldn’t work on that service any longer. My point is it’s not the staff’s fault (unless of course you had an inadequate person dealing with your ds). The service will undoubtedly get worse as cuts are continuing with no promise of funding. Its crap

We were so lucky. DS was assessed and put on a programme of counselling, which lasted 5 months, for PTSD and anxiety. We were treated well, had so much help and warmth. I realise how lucky we were. Good luck.

Terrible for my DD unfortunately. Never spoke to us without her in the room so we couldn't speak freely. Based their decision that no further assessment was required on DDs answers to their (leading) questions in one 30 minute session. She was seven.
Three very difficult years later we went down a different route and got a diagnosis very quickly. Looking back at the CAMHS report now they could not recognise what was right in front of them.

It makes me so angry when practitioners dismiss parents' concerns. Reading about these conditions is very different to living with it.

Sorry to derail OP. Be as prepared as you can to explain the difficulties your son faces, when compared to others his age. If your son says something that's not accurate, find a way to correct that.
Our DD told them she had lots of friends and rattled off a list of names. They included next doors baby, a child from a holiday club the previous year and other random people. We never got a chance to point that out, and in the report it claimed she had no difficulty making and keeping friends.
I hope you have a much better experience.

Sorry op, letting my personal experience get in the way of your op. My experience from a parental perspective: initially had to fight for my ds as (as you’ve probably gathered from my ranting up thread) the service is disgustingly underfunded and lacking. However on a positive note wjen he was seen the nurses/ doctors/therapist he saw were so good. He’s now in such a better place and I’m so glad for the support.
On a practical note. It took some (passive aggressive) time to get there. You can challenge any decision you feel is unfair. We went through gp/ pals/ local nhs trust and Spoke to our mp (not saying you’ll need to fo this far btw it’s an issues that is close to my heart). Don’t be fobbed off if you feel your child needs more support. It took several gp visits for my child to be considered for the waiting list. As is common I. Life those who shout loudest get heard. I hope your experience is positive

@giggly you are just really reinforcing my opinion on CAMHS - you are more focused on your own status than the wellbeing of my DC.

@onemorenamechangewonthurt I am sure there must be decent, competent people in CAMHS, but we didn't meet them. We met the ones who did not listen, and were just desperate to get rid of anyone they thought they could - no doubt for good reasons of their own, but the outcome for my child was disastrous. My DS was left with no professional support at all. I couldn't buy private support - I'm a single mother on a low income. I met nice, well-heeled professionals who not only did not help my DS, but made his illness worse. Its a miracle he's still with me. The damage they did to him is long-term. I don't blame you at all for leaving. I stand by my assertion that CAHMS should be closed, rather than just get worse as funding cuts bite, as what good is a service that harms more children that it heals, even if it's with the best of intentions?

I take great offence at that and can I just say that your shite at your job as well. Given that was a stupid statement to make

Exactly the kind of kneejerk, straight-on-the-offensive biteback response to any perceived criticism that I would expect from a CAMHS worker. You don't see real professionals publicly reacting this way when the service they work in is criticised by someone it has let down.

@Doorkeeper I’m genuinely sorry to hear that. Though I’m not entirely surprised. How is your ds now? I hope things improved and I’m sorry you were let down by the service. Unfortunately there will be some teams where the burnout and pressure leads to none compassionate care. For me the lack of resources and the ever increasing threshold meant I couldn’t continue to work in an environment where suffering children were rejected and passed back to the gp day in day out.
You are absolutely right, in your experience, that the service is inadequate. It was for me both in a professional and parental role. Unfortunately the way things are going it will likely continue to get worse. Truly hope your ds is in a better place now

Thank you, onemorenamechange - he really is doing a lot better, though I worry when he has a dip, because he just won't ask for help from anyone apart from me, now, which isn't a good or long-term healthy place to be.

@Doorkeeper

The process of trying to get help for DS from CAMHS made his mental health worse, and will likely damage his mental health in the future, as CAMHS taught him that there's no use asking for help.

I think child and teenage mental health in this country would be actively improved by disbanding CAMHS. They are not fit for purpose, and their staff are a disgrace.

Based on everything we've seen and experienced, I completely agree with CAMHS not being fit for purpose.

I have x2 SEN DC and we have many, many SEN children in our community who have been waiting to see CAMHS while in complete crisis only to be dismissed. Our CAMHS refuses to treat even severe anxiety with suicidal ideation in autistic children because "anxiety is part of autism". So basically there are autistic children who are self harming and expressed suicidal thoughts who don't have any way of being treated. CAMHS is supposed to be the answer, but CAMHS isn't interested. I've not got any experience of a non-SEN child being seen by CAMHS, maybe that's their thing - but as far as SEN children go, it's shocking. It's literally nothing more than a box-ticking exercise and in most cases they refuse to even see them. And we are talking about children with severe mental health problems - so are supposed to fall under their remit.

The whole service and structure is failing badly, and desperately needs to be disbanded and restructured. As @Doorkeeper says, right now, it's not fit for purpose.

I hope your experience is better OP. Heartening to read some positive stories on here but in real life I don't know a single person who's had any genuine help at all from CAMHS. Sorry.

We were referred to cahms for DD age 16 in November 2020. Transferred to YMCA counselling in January 2021 was assessed by YMCA in March 2021. Approved for counselling and waiting until counselling started in the July. Did 6 weeks counselling and was re-referred after it didn't help and things were getting worse in. Doctor chased in August 2021. Assessed by CAHMS in September 2021 which approved for face to face meeting. That happened in late October they approved medication which was sent to our doctor in December. The doctor was no allowed to prescribe it as she was under 18. We contacted CAHMS who looked into it and agreed she needed to see the Psychiatrist as an emergency. Put on the list. She had her appointment end of January 2022 medication issued and regular meetings arranged.

It has been a lot of fighting from us and an incredible amount of support from school, doctors, family and friends to get through it

CAHMS are amazing there is just not enough of them compared to level of need, especially in our area. Every member of staff were kind and fantastic with my dd. Just so overworked.

Entirely agree with @Doorkeeper, my experience with DD was exactly the same; she was destroyed by the way CAMHS clinicians dealt with her. The vitriol expressed by @giggly is typical of CAMHS staff.

I worked for specialist CAMHS services as a clinical psychologist for over a decade. I now work privately as I just couldn’t do the job I was trained for in the NHS anymore. MH services for children in this country are woefully underfunded and, IMO, not fit for purpose. This makes them largely ineffective and, at times I would argue, dangerous. Services are plagued by staff burnout, bullying and retention issues. Managers can often be more interested in beurocratic arse-covering form filling, than in us actually seeing families. Even when I could see families, there was often a limit imposed as to what I could offer, and in effect, a ‘sticky plaster’ approach to care, which felt unethical to me. Waiting times in my local area are currently 1-3 years, depending on severity and nature of need. For this reason, some local GPs now refer directly to me. Whilst I fully appreciate that private healthcare is not an option for all, at least I can sleep at night now, knowing that the children I am able to see are at least getting the absolute best from me. In principle though, I disagree that any family should have to pay for this if they do not wish to.

Does anyone who works with or has worked with CAMHS know what the threshold is for a referral?
We were told Dd didn't meet the threshold but she was given 8 weeks counselling from another service very quickly.
Dd wasn't self harming so I thought that was the threshold but one of her friends was self harming and still didn't meet it so I'd love to know how bad someone needs to be

@giggly

I work in CAMHS and have used the service as a parent. As staff the hardest thing is when parents disagree with medical opinion and argue and argue their cause despite their child not meeting WHO diagnosis. Pleas bare in mind that most CAMHS services are for moderate to severe MH issues and again these are not made up by individual staff but by DSM diagnostic criteria. So while many parents will argue the severity of their children’s problems many can be and should be seen in a different service. For school issues/ refusals while we liaise daily with school, getting children to attend school is an education issues and not CAMHS core criteria. Again a bone of contention with many parents. I am happy and actively encourage my families to phone in to check up on progress/ reports etc as my workload would make you faint and I can’t possibly keep on top of all admin. Oh and as for waiting lists, all postcode lottery. I work on average 8 hours unpaid overtime every week including public holidays, annual leave etc and I mean every week. OP pleas go in with the belief that the medical team will make the best decisions for your child .

"For school issues/ refusals while we liaise daily with school, getting children to attend school is an education issues and not CAMHS core criteria. Again a bone of contention with many parents."

If the school refusal is due to mental health surely that is a CAMHS issue not an educational one, especially as a diagnosis is dependent upon not being able to live a normal life which is what school is for children. If a child is unable to attend because of MH that should fall under CAMHS surely
I'm curious what the threshold for CAMHS is

My DD was widely regarded as in crisis by absolutely everyone involved in her care. I, school, social care and her support worker were all screaming for help for her through CAMHS. They never accepted her referral because she's autistic and anxiety is part of autism apparantly. No it isn't. And autism so severe that a child is effectively bed bound, completely unable to function, completely unable to do anything remotely like they should be is not acceptable.

My child was massively failed by gatekeeping that told us just to deal with it.

And yes a parent SHOULD argue with a medical professional when they live with a child day in say out and medical professionals see them for a tiny snapshot. Parents are the experts in their children, yet are usually regarded as @giggly implies as having no idea.

My son has seen Camhs and they diagnosed his anxiety but when it came to counselling they were unfortunately in my sons case rubbish.
My son reads people very well and he just told her everything she wanted to hear and she lapped it up.
No use or help to my son who is now waiting for an ADHD and ASD assessment.
No good for my son or some of my friends children but im sure they do help others maybe younger children not teenagers

I am very sorry and shocked to hear some of these replies. I can only imagine that it must be a postcode lottery, and I am lucky enough to be a ‘winner’

DD was referred to the CAMHS eating disorders team just over a year ago. She was seen, virtually, weekly at first, now fortnightly. They further referred her to a CAMHS psychologist who she also sees fortnightly for now, but will reduce to monthly soon. Not only that but they referred us to Family Therapy to help me deal with my changing feelings towards my DD (caused by dealing with her ED and a whole host of other things).

I honestly couldn’t be happier with the service we have had. I think without it I would possibly have a dead DD, and almost certainly have an irretrievably broken relationship with her.

The only issue we have had it the odd computer issue and a few cancelled appts when the key worker has had to rush off to an emergency appt - however when that has happened she has phoned to explain and we have understood - it’s not that long ago that my DD was that emergency appt.

OP I sincerely hope you get one of the good ones.

I work with many families whose children have been referred to CAMHS. Sadly, I find, like a lot of the NHS, where something can’t be fixed easily then services do their best to try and say why they can’t help a child.

The comment about school refusal being an education issue, clearly sums this issue up for me. You have a child who finds school stressful and difficult, makes them physically ill (possibly self harm). For a parent to be told, “it’s an education issue” is ridiculous.

My friend recently was referred as her 6 year old has very clear signs of ASD. He has anxiety and it is getting worse. She had a phone assessment and was told, “well he’s clearly not that bad so no point getting a diagnosis”.

We have had a lot of help from CAMHS. Not initially. Ds was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD in 2016 and we didn't have any further contact with CAMHS until 2020 when I asked them for medication. Since then we have had 3 monthly medication reviews and an ASD diagnosis, along with anxiety workshops and lots of advice. They have been really helpful.

They were awful with my dds eating disorder.
Dangerous levels of complicity, never saw the consultant despite my dd being in hospital for a Yr and her in pt consultant writing three times and ringing the community consultant stating what complex and high risk case my dd was.
Often staff didn't turn up for virtual meetings, once her psychologist tried to do her session while moving house! I mean actually sitting in front of screen as removal men walked around.
During lockdown family therapist let her teenage son wander about in view.
And when my dd relapsed they refused to come to hospital, and then discharged her saying she was too ill for therapy.
My dd also felt that no one was going to be able or willing to help her.
I then paid for private treatment and the difference is unbelievable.
I'm a doctor myself and I usually tell patients "paying doesn't get you a better doctor it just gets you the same but in a nicer hospital, and at your convenience"
But all my experience with cahms is you get better treatment all round if you pay.

My Ds has been under camhs for 6 years.

Our experience has been mixed. I have had times where i stood in reception , appointment was cancelled without telling me and cried - no help whatsoever but school head phoned and said there were serious safeguarding risks and he was seen within a week.
There is also a huge staff turnover so again some are more helpful than others.

His Camhs nurse he was under for 5 years was not a specialist in my Ds's issues but was brilliant in finding the answers from the right people.

He currently should have been seen in January by an amazing nurse but she has left no idea when she will be.

I treat appointments like business meetings. I have notes on what i need to discuss.

Like most things its not all good or bad.
They need significamore funding

CAHMS were brilliant with my son, very positive experience, although severely understaffed and under funded

@ArcheryAnnie

The care and treatment for children in crisis is wonderful.

My DS was in crisis. They treated him like shit.

We were told when our DS(10) tried to kill himself that he was just expressing his feelings and trying to communicate with us. Refused to support us and have this very week refused us to have a meds review. Our CAMHS also can't keep staff and it's a permanent revolving door of locums who you can't build any form of relationship with. I could go on but it also affects my MH so I'll leave it there

My experience has been awful.

I would say keep your expectations, of what they will be able to offer you, low. As dps we have to fight hard for scraps.

I had a suicidal 10 year old. The waiting list was 15 months and he was rejected because he masks beautifully with autism and seemed fine on the day. I’ve been fighting that since.

You’d think after 7 years of begging for every scrap of service for him I’d have had more sense but I genuinely thought once I got him in front of cahms I’d be able to share the burden of worry and he’d be getting some sort of help and support. I was gutted afterwards.

So I’m saying to you to guard your own mh as you navigate these systems. We are our dc’s best (and often only) advocate and if we break they have nothing.