Dd school refusing..getting no where with CAHMS

[onanotherday]

Dd is 14 and been diagnoised with PTSD, anxiety and depressions. We finally, after a long wait, are attending CAHMS..
8 months on not making much progress and im teally worry about GCSE's. Beside her health the added stress of being s single psrent and syrughling to work has had an pact on me too. I've started to consider home schooling ( I'm a teacher). But financially we struggle..would I be intitle to a career allowance? Can anyone advise
TIA

FenlandMum
Great! What’s the point in us having the appointment if they won’t help her?
Although Christ knows when we will get to see someone.

I have had 3 years with my DD school refusing and only now he's 16 and still highly anxious have we found him a suitable school place. He hasn't started yet but we are hopeful. It's a special school with other teens who face constant anxiety and are on the autistic spectrum.
He was under CAMHS in the county we used to live in but we found it very unhelpful. Overstretched and one session a week for a short period on time was not enough.
Last year my DD tried to take his life. Only then did CAMS take notice and that didn't last long. Crisis was over apparently as he was back home from hospital and I could keep an eye on him!. All support stopped but yes I could call them if needed!.
I don't blame the individuals, they themselves always told me how overstretched they are. My Dr in Sussex where we were had heard it all so many times, she was highly frustrated. She saw the decline in my DD and myself, I become very unwell but still had the other kids and my DD to care for.
Something has to be done about child mental health it effects all the family.
I found CAMS to be very frustrating, staff may try hard but the system is disconnected, paperwork forever going missing. I agree with last posts.
My DD is still at home and has terrible fear and phobias around face to face contact with his own age group. We gave up on CAMS, caused me too much stress and DD couldn't see the point of him opening the flood gates for an hour then being left for a few weeks in-between sessions.
We just hang on to hope that he will attend the special school soon.
I Feel passionately and hope other areas provide good provisions for young people.

OP - I really feel for you having been there and still dealing with my DD's issues. Anxiety, Depression, Aspergers and, although not diagnosed, it is acknowledged by the GP and her (private) counsellor that PTSD is present also. I know all too well how difficult and stressful it is. I'm afraid my DD was also completely failed by CAMHS. I won't go into all the detail here, but one thing we did discover was that when DD did finally get treatment, I have to say it didn't really help. They only offered CBT, which I know can work brilliantly but didn't for my DD and it turned out CAMHS had nothing else to offer. No idea whether this is the case for your DD, but just a thought. What has helped is leaving school and starting work, and an excellent private counsellor. It is expensive, but might be worth trying. We found a counsellor who was experienced with teenagers and willing and able to use a variety of counselling approaches to help her, rather than being wedded to one way only. I wish you well.

Really appreciate you wishing us all, thanks.
Asked CAMHS for CBT but they refused to give that to him, said it would not help him!. One of the many suggestions they couldn't fund I guess. Made me so mad that my opinion of what might help him was dismissed as pointless. As parents we are all so desperate to try anything that may help. I'm pleased life is going better for your DD now.
Having a direction and purpose is key I think.

I'm so sorry so many of you are going through this too. As a teacher, I have also observed how mush pressure has been put on children to achieve and many schools I know put this first. My DD is still under CAMHS not much has changed in last few months. We have worked hard together she has set her own goals and I'm proud of her. We do however feel very let down by system. One thing we did was look at a Steiner school whose ethos really suited her.. but battle is the funding now and transport. ....oh well keep fighting. Council find in post this week feels like a kick in the teeth!!

Very disappointed with CAMHS here too. 6 weeks of CBT is supposed to be entirely sufficient for my dad to manage her significant anxiety. And they're now telling me that her thoughts of suicide and self harm are not significant and she won't act on them ad they're anxiety based, she's not depressed.

I find camhs pretty crap actually. Most parents wait months for a referral to find the help to be far from specialist and often similar to what can be found online.

I'm apprehensive of CAMHS input too.Dd was refused two referrals and so will see them next week 9 months after I first asked for help. In that time she's gone from highly anxious around school to complete refusal. She has autism and selective mutism alongside and so I'm not hopeful that the proposed CBT is what is needed particularly when there is doubts about it being appropriate with an autism diagnosis. I believe we need medication before dd has a hope of being able to engage but apparently we have to fail at talking therapies first. I know though that to fail first will mean no chance of success later because dd will not engage a second time.
As a second resort I'm taking the EHCP to Tribunal and hope to secure more appropriate educational provision instead in an autism specialist school that provides autism specialist therapy and counselling sessions as part of the timetable.

My dd 14 has been a school refuser for the past year. Eventually got a cahms apt two weeks ago only to be told as shes not suicidal or self harming they wont give her any more sessions!