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 I’m sorry for what you and your ds have been through, are still going through.

I hear you 100%

It was hard to get seen initially but once my daughter was seen they were great. Not always great at paperwork and following up on things but I imagine that’s due to an incredibly high workload.
My daughter has had two counsellors give up on her previously (one through school, one private) and the CAMHS team seem determined not to do that. They’re also great at supporting the family in my experience

@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.

Sadly this is my experience too, and I agree that they are not fit for purpose at all.

I am afraid in our area it is terrible. My dd landed herself in hospital 4 times with overdoses - starting age 12 to around 14. Serious amounts of paracetamol meaning she needed a charcoal drip as treatment. She was referred to the local charity youth counselling service first. Then after another attempt on her life she was referred to a group for anxiety (her anxiety at group work made that unworkable). Eventually she was given 2 sessions of CBT. 2 - I really don't understand that. It was supposed to be I think, 12. Discharged because she was engaged and future focussed. So on discharge, yes you've guessed it, she took an overdose.

She is now 17. I cannot get her to a counsellor because she thinks it's pointless trying and nobody wants to help her.

This is my experience. As others have said it probably isn't helpful to compare. I imagine it is very different depending on where you live. Lots of nhs services vary greatly. (I also live in the area of the premier stroke team and I feel extremely grateful for that compared to my neighbouring CCG).

My advice would be try to do as much research you can yourself, l had such high hopes for CAHMS, but they just shoved my son into a weekly 2 hr group called chilled, with all other girls older than him. Not ideal for someone with an anxiety and panic disorder, l had to deregister my son as school expected miraculous results even after first meeting, l hated the whole experiance, l was shoved into a group with parents of anxious chikdren but their issues were very different to mine.
Cahms should admit they have no idea or real interest in dealing with school refusal, endless pointless messages between school, me and themselves. Complete waste of time.

So while many parents will argue the severity of their children’s problems many can be and should be seen in a different service

Sorry, but there aren’t any other services! I wish there were and that schools had well-being advisers and counsellors - I think CAMHS in some areas are piloting more rooted services.

It’s also chronically underfunded and I know it has some excellent practitioners.

That said they were detrimental to my child when she was unwell. Forgotten appointments, updating us in corridors about her suicide risk as people walked past, not referring in when they should have - so she ended up back in services 2 years later. Awful.

I used PALS twice to complain and chase things up.

Oh I did go to a day for parents about anxiety. It was good and very informative.

Go in with very low expectations. They may be able to provide a diagnosis & short-term therapy IF your child is able to access this. They should be able to give advice for educational setting or EHCP plans. Longer term therapy or ability to deal with very anxious children not so much in our area at least. We found it helpful to have an initial appointment without child being present so that we could be completely open about the difficulties without making our ds.distressed even more than he was already.

Yes really good experience. ADHD diagnosis took almost a year but it was calm and measured and really respectfully undertaken.
Ongoing psychiatric support with medication also excellent.

Where I live in Scotland the waiting list is 2.5 years. So whatever service CAMHS provides after that is fairly meaningless. Every child who has to wait that long is being failed.

Sorry to hear all these bad experiences. So sad to hear that children and parents trying to get some help have such terrible experiences.

They shooed me out of my living room and refused to talk to me about a very traumatic incident that happened in my house, because I’m only a stepparent.

I did not have a good experience. They said they would refer DD for ASD assessment but it would at least a 2 year wait. That was after a waiting 6 months for our initial online appointment. They then pushed us over to child protection and they are truly awful

We used them during lockdown last year when DD was struggling with massive outbursts and anxiety. They placed us in group zoom sessions with about 5 other children and their parents. DD didn’t enjoy it, she sat rolling her eyes at a lot of it and didn’t want to do it. I think it may have been different had it been in person, I’m not sure. We finished the group sessions and left it at that, she was back at school the following week anyway so settled down.

@Pancakeswithchocolate do keep your place on the waiting list though; as you can see from this many have had terrible experiences including me, but some have been ok and you simply can't tell. Also if you need to access a higher level of NHS MH services (often referred to as tier 4, in a specialist hospital) you have to be registered with CAMHS in order to do so.

My DD was 14 when she became unwell and was seen fairly quickly at CAMHS, I had an idea that she had body dysmorphia. I put this to them and they said we can't deal with that at the moment lets see if CBT will work - so with body dysmorphia she was scared to go out and they immediately wanted to take her to the shops and things like that. She was terrified of the therapist and didn't tell me until a few years later this woman would say things to her like "don't listen to your mum always listen to me"; when DD said she hated herself the therapist said "never mind we all feel like that sometimes", or if DD said I feel suicidal she'd do a tinkly laugh and say "noooooo you don't really!" Eventually after nearly 3 years of this shit I took DD to a private specialist and she was formal diagnosed with body dysmorphia and recommended to be referred to a specialist NHS service. CAMHS fought it all the way. They'd tried to discharge her, then they tried to diagnose other things, anything so as not to accept the specialist's opinion. The hospital supported us through an application for NHS funding and when I finally tried to complain about CAMHS, they stopped fighting us. As DD waited so long for treatment her illness is now so severe she is completely housebound at 18 she's lost all her teenage years and the illness is now entrenched. She's meant to be discharged at 18 from CAMHS and again, they fought that, they wanted to be at every meeting so that they could put "their side" of the story that there was nothing wrong with her and that they had done everything they could. She was traumatised by the psychiatrist and psychologist at CAMHS telling her she was lying and making derogatory remarks about her - google iatrogenic harm. Its like a form of PTSD caused by inappropriate medical treatment. My one regret is that I didn't make that formal complaint.

There is a "but" - I've met one person who said her child received excellent CAMHS therapy, I also met the therapist by chance and I could see that this person was really special, something about their openness and level of understanding - so this lady's child got amazing therapy very quickly. It is definitely a postcode lottery. Go in with an open mind - just in case. Sadly you may need these people so you have to co-operate but don't be afraid to complain and complain again, and look privately if you can afford it and need to, but always keep your son on the CAMHS list as it can open other doors.

@BuddhaBelly I hope your DS is doing a bit better. Mine is, but it's been a long haul.

and at some of these stories - really sad. Those of you who went private can you stay on the waiting list at CAMHS and try private treatment while you wait? I'd really rather go down the NHS route for many reasons - but I don't think we can cope with waiting ages for some help.

@StaplesCorner that is excellent advice. I hate commenting negatively on these things because it is so individual and I don't want to colour other people's experiences with my own. (Even positive actually - like the excellent ambulance response I've had throughout the pandemic).

The inconsistency and wait times can't help anyone. It must be a stressful place to work too.
My DSD works in a branch of mental health for children (not CAHMS) and prior to lockdown had a similarly large wait list. They used the lockdown as an opportunity to really look at their waiting list. Many had aged out (into adult services) so they were discharged. They managed to chase up a huge backlog and reduce it down to the people who were still the right age and traceable. Switching to telephone consultation allowed them to speak to more people each day too. The nature of the issue her service supports often means missed appointments and clients that don't engage or respond. A lot of productive time gets wasted, but not deliberately.
The whole wait list culture for mental health support is deeply unhelpful. It needs to be timely and appropriate.
My impression is that the professionals are also often dealing with people who are struggling to engage with their services for a whole host of reasons. Such as my DSD's workplace.
I think that the reason it was effective for us was that we didn't have to wait long and DD was co-operative and followed the exercises set. She has a friend who really needs counselling but won't engage because the school services have to say they may have to disclose any safeguarding risks. So she refused. When she finally spoke to someone she decided that they didn't ask her the right questions. And she wants an instant fix. All of which are quite unrealistic. So she remains sad and unhappy despite support being offered to her.

Sad to read so many people have had terrible experiences with Camhs. I definitely agree that it's a postcode lottery.

Ds (12) developed anxiety in lockdown and had a huge breakdown mid 2020. He was then referred by GP for online counselling sessions with a clinical psychologist. We had a few sessions for the anxiety and suspected OCD, but DS didn't really warm up to her nor was she particularly helpful in tackling his issues but she listened to my concerns about possible ASD. So she made the referral to Camhs in Jan 2021. We got his ASD diagnosis last week so the process has taken exactly a year. I understand this is relatively quick compared to many places and DS has had a wonderful MH practitioner. For months she provided weekly one to one sessions to help his OCD and anxiety along with the necessary assessments for his diagnosis. She and I also had a few private phonecalls so I could tell her openly and thoroughly all of DS's symptoms without distressing him. She gave me her mobile number as well as email address and I always received a prompt reply.

There were some minor issues like crap connection during video appointments and she occasionally got dates mixed up leaving us sat in the virtual waiting room for long periods but was always very apologetic. My hardest battle was probably all the years prior to the referral when nobody listened or took my concerns seriously. Best of luck, OP.

Our experience was great.

My DS was seen about 10 days after making a phone call to NHS 24 and explaining how bad things had gotten.

His therapist was fantastic. My DS really clicked with him.

My DS now is in such a good place and has learnt how to make good choices for himself and how to get help when he feels like things are slipping.

Less than positive with my 15 year old DS

I went down the route of paying for private CAHMS psychiatrist and got her the care and treatment she needed.

After eight referrals by professionals backed up with evidence over a period of two years my son has finally been accepted for an assessment.....not expecting miracles but hey ho

We’ve had a positive experience with them on the whole, although long waiting times.

DD was originally referred to them by our GP - she has Tourette’s and anxiety.

Initially went through a triage service where we were first referred for talking therapy for 6 weeks with Barnardos. This wasn’t enough so she was referred back to CAMHS for CBT and Habit Replacement Therapy (for the Tourette’s)

Had an assessment pretty much straight away and put on the waiting list for the CBT. Habit Replacement Therapy is a bit more specialist so they wanted her to do the CBT first.

We were warned the waiting time for the CBT was about 12 months so we found a private therapist (but stayed on the CAMHS waiting list)

Once she had done the CBT privately we were put back on the waiting list for the HRT. We went pretty much straight to the top of that list and we were called in for an assessment within about 6 weeks.

Had an assessment and DD decided that actually she’d rather do more work on improving her self-esteem and acceptance of the Tourette’s, rather than HRT (which is really just a different way of suppressing tics really) so she’s been seeing them weekly for about 6 months.

They’ve been good.

She used to suppress her tics all the time - she’d received some negative attitudes for her Tourette’s so was very self conscious and anxious and would suppress until they exploded in a massive tic attack once she got home. She’s been doing work with them on her self esteem, acceptance of her Tourette’s and just generally dealing with knobheads she may encounter, being more “no fucks given”, etc.

She’s doing really well. Bit 2 steps forward and 1 back at times but they’ve been great so far. She’s not rushed, she’ll stay with them as long as she needs.

I can't offer a positive experience. I get the impression that this is what CAMhS is. A list of children who will need adult mental health support in the future.