CAMHS

[Ahwombimbam]

Can someone please tell me the best and quickest way for my dd to get a CAMHS referral.

She’s in a very strange place mentally at the moment and has asked me to get her some help.
I’ve had a quick google and it says she needs to be referred to CAMHS.

Can our gp do this? Or her school?

If the gp, do I just make her an appointment and say can she be referred or will they try to fob her off saying it’s teenage hormones. I really feel she would harm herself if they don’t help us.

Any help would be great.

GP or school nurse.

It's an absolute nightmare at the moment ! Camhs everywhere is so over run ! Ask your gp but my dd was rejected twice so we went private ! It's utterly useless in our area! 🙄🙄

Be aware that they don’t accept lots of cases, and there’s a long waiting list.
See the GP urgently on Monday.
If it gets towards crisis point and you think she might harm herself, A&E.

I am afraid if you can, you pay. In my experience GPS won't help with private referrals. If you need a full assessment I would recommend an adolescent psychiatric assessment through somewhere like the Priory. We were with BUPA and fortunately they helped.

I think it's probably worth extending the mortgage for if you have to.

CAMHS declined my dd when she was cutting and taking small overdoses. Well actually they offered group therapy in the middle of the day which would have wrecked a new A'Level at a new school and in turn would have destroyed dd even more. They refused an alternative and wrote to my GP to say that they had closed my dd's case because the family had refused an intervention.

If you have no choice I would suggest you confirm everything agreed with them at appointments and send it to them by registered delivery. They are wriggly little buggers.

How old? What are her symptoms? Any self harm / suicidal ideation? Have you made well-being staff at her school aware of her issues to see what they can put into place? If it’s not too outing what area do you live in - different areas have different provisions - some counties have IAPT services for children. Sometimes CAMHS would have the expectation that you have tried a lower level service first so perhaps school nurse, youth worker or early help.

GP can get you a referral.
School may have access to some kind of counselling sooner.

DD has been waiting for CAMHS since May 2020 so even if you get a referral you may want to make alternative arrangements.

Unfortunately it's a very long process and they're likely to refuse up to 3 times first. I started applying for my ds 3.5 years ago and got refused 3 times. Finally got accepted and put on the list 1 year ago, we finally had a diagnosis last week. We have medication but CBT will still be months even though they have said he has severed ocd and needs a combination of therapy and medication.. If you can pay for any private therapy in the meantime then I'd advise you to whilst waiting. X