To take DD to our GP about school not supporting her?

[theferry]

Apologies, this will be a long one and I’ll try to cover everything.

I don’t know if it makes a difference, but we’re in Scotland.

DD is 14. She’s been on the waiting list for an autism assessment for almost two years and god knows how much longer that will take. I fully believe that she is ND, as do her teachers. It was the school that referred her to CAMHS.

The school has been supportive of her and has various measure in place to help her, including having a room she can go to if she gets into a meltdown. She uses it quite a lot. However, when i spoke with her teacher on Monday, they are planning on withdrawing that support next year on the basis she will be doing her exams and needs to be in classes and they now believe she’s not that badly affected anymore. There was an insinuation that she is making it up.

We've also had communication about her attendance (sitting at 80%). There are times when she gets so upset that I refuse to leave her at school to suffer. She gets so overwhelmed by everything very easily and so distressed.

I’ve also had reason to worry about her MH. She’s self harmed and expressed suicidal plans in the past. Since she’s had this room to go to at school, she’s been much better. I really worry she is going to slip backwards again.

AIBU to take her to our GP about her mental health? She’s seen DD before about this and I think she would be supportive. But what can she do to help? Would a letter from the GP help us with keeping the support ? And would it help with getting them off our backs about attendance? She was in such a bad way a few years ago and I don’t want for her to go back to that. I don’t know what to do and whether going to the GP might make things worse.

Take a look at this website

https://notfineinschool.co.uk/

You will get amazing advice x

Yes the GP can sign her off school.
Yes it would stop them being on your back about attendance.

However, when she does go back she will be miles behind, will feel like she’s drowning and that may make it a lot worse.

Depending on her base academic ability, she may end up leaving with no GCSEs.

How do you see her achieving the grades she needs in her exams? The school may be thinking that she needs to attend more lessons because she is falling behind.

Mainstream secondary schools really struggle to support students with asd. One thing I would say that I picked up from reading about ASD was that one of the biggest issues is the mental health problems that come with ASD especially in teenagers. I would see what support your daughter could get for this. I've seen some ASD kids really gain in confidence and become a lot happier in school following a set of cbt sessions with a therapist. Where I am this is accessed through cahms as well but I have heard of online groups and therapists that can be accessed cheaply.
I know it's tough but we try really hard at my school but we can't always help and we want to.

It is very rare for a GP to write a letter saying a child is medically unfit to attend school. That's because the vast majority of children with Mental Health issues are able to attend school, with some adjustments. The GP can't instruct school to put support in place for your DD. It would be more effective to ask for a meeting with the SENCO and talk about what you feel should be in place and why.