CAMHS anxiety workshop - anyone done it?

[purpleme12]

CAMHS has suggested this anxiety workshop for parents which is supposed to help parents with strategies to support their child with anxiety.

But I would need to take time off work for this and 2 buses to get there. I'm not sure after reading about it if it will be worth it. It seems to be aimed at children who have specific fears about a specific thing. This is but mine. She just has problems with emotional regulation which I guess has elements of being anxious. But there's no specific anxiety for something to work towards

This course is based on Helping your Child with Fears and Worries by Cathy Creswell

Has anyone been on the course? And/or read the book? Can anyone shed any light on this?

I bought the book but got bored reading it as it didn't seem designed to be for parents that need to use CAMHS for further support. It seemed to be for kids that just had normal childhood worries.

I strongly suspect that this will be some pedestrian support from CAMHS where they state the bleeding obvious as if you're too thick to think of what they're suggesting. Stuff such as 'talk to your child, listen to them, try deep breathing exercises, use a worry monster' when if your child has been referred to CAMHS, it's likely the issues are more deep rooted.

However, I'd imagine that to get further support from CAMHS, you'd have to jump through this hoop otherwise they'll use it as an excuse to discharge your child or not help further!

That is kind of what I'm worried about.
If it'll be things we already know/do or things that aren't suited to us.

I referred to CAMHS myself. I thought maybe she could get help with managing her emotions. But this what what they offered.

I don't feel very convinced now with it all

Bumping in case anyone else has experience

I would call and ask them if they offer dbt-dialectical behaviour therapy. It is designed to help epilepsy identify and manage strong emotions. My dd has been given a place on an online dbt camhs course and it was good, although she could have learned it through a book. And I’d ask if attending the parental
amditrty course is a prerequisite for further camhs treatment.

Thank you that's really interesting to know and helpful

Ime with cahms they operate as different units. So the core cahms team do the initial assessment. That then goes to a team made up of people
fromnall the teams. They then decide best next course of action. Usually they require young person to complete different stages to show their willingness to engage and improve their knowledge and skills at managing emotions. At the end of every stage the multi team team decide the next course of action. It might be different in different parts of country though. It helped me to know this as the different teams operate completely independently of each other where I am and it’s easy to assume there is a central record keeping system and exchange of info but that is not necessarily the case ime.

I think I might call and say it's too far away to be honest anyway.

It starts at 9.30. I'd have to get 2 buses. And so I'd have to leave her alone to get to school by herself. I mean it's ok if you drive but I don't.

Not to mention the fact that I should be working.

I just don't feel convinced enough about it all with factoring all this in

OP, if you're suspecting she's ND in some way, I'd put your energy and time into accessing an assessment for that. This stuff is peripheral. You need to understand what exactly is behind it all.

She doesn't fit enough of the symptoms

The Cassy Cresswell book is a CBT model for parent-led therapy, so the HYC workshop will also be parent-led CBT. If you and DC can tolerate CBT, then it will be worth it.

Have you had experience of it?

I was able to do it online, is that an option for you? It was one to one with a very nice mental health practitioner, there was lots of useful stuff to take away

I think it would have been very good for a child with a specific fear (eg dogs), my child has lots of generalised anxiety and it was less good for this but we still picked up some good tips

We suspected my child's generalised anxiety was due to his autism, and by the end of the course that's what the cahms lady thought as well! So doing the course would have been used to get him on the pathway (but we got fed up jumping hoops and went private)

I'm glad I did it but we had the option to do it online around our schedule

Ps the course is based on the book already discussed so that might be worth a look if you can't access he course

Thanks that's interesting to hear another viewpoint from someone who's done it

They haven't suggested an online one

It's something I could ask about. But yes there's no specific fear or anything

The service should have an option to make it accessible to you, so you can always ask if they have any online groups. If you're on UC, they should also pay your bus faire.

My local CAMHS only does it online, since covid.

I found "Breaking free of childhood anxiety and OCD" by Lebowitz a far more helpful book. Not saying your child has OCD but persistent generalised anxiety can lead to it so it's worth trying to tackle the underlying anxiety.

The synopsis is:
Parenting an anxious child means facing constant challenges and questions: When should parents help children avoid anxiety-provoking situations, and when should they encourage them to face their fears? How can parents foster independence while still supporting their children?

The biggest thing it taught me is that it's important to give your child the tools to face their fears rather than trying to protect them from them all of the time (as your parental instincts tell you to do).

Teaching your child that, yes, they feel anxious, but if they sit with the anxiety, the anxiety always goes down (what goes up, must come down). Plus, the more you face that fear, you worry less and less about it to the point that the fear goes away. The book teaches you how to be strong for your child and to help your child without the. Hild knowing that's what the parent is doing.

But, also, if your child has general worries, then I's hazard a guess at neurodivergence. Plus girls often don't fit the standard profile. My girl is clever, fully verbal from 18 months old, self taught letter sounds at age 2 and could read by 3. Very chatty and engaging as a toddler. Makes eye contact.

The Challenge your OCD handbook by Amita Jassi has certain pages that you will find helpful to talk your child through what happens with anxiety and how it works. That it goes up and then comes down. The more you challenge your anxiety, the quicker it goes down.

Again, not suggesting OCD, it's just a great book for tackling anxiety.

It gives you techniques to help you identify which worry to tackle first (start with the one that causes the least worry).

The book is based on CBT and ERP.

After doing a handful of parenting courses and ways to support my child I really wouldn't bother TBH. They are almost 99% parenting for idiots.
I think these things are mostly a box ticking exercise to get parents to either give up or move them to the next waiting list.

If you have any sense and Google you'll already know, and have tried, almost everything they tell you.

Sometimes you don't have a choice. A lot of services will only offer the direct therapy with children if a parents has attended the group first.

I did one of these types of sessions online.

it was really a repetition of the general information CAMHS sent out on the bottom of their general emails. The last 10 minutes of the hour session was spent naming fruits with each letter of the alphabet