What is the point of cahms, who can help my son with his terrible anxiety

[Hadenough91625]

We think my son has adhd/asd (traits of both), been through hell his whole life. Went though cahms age 7 at request of the school for an adhs referral. Cahms only gave 6 weeks of counselling with younger minds and discharged us.
We continued to plod on with great difficulty. He's 15 now and along side his difficulty to concentrate/focus etc he also now has sever anxiety, health anxiety, ocd.

We went to the GP 18 months ago to refer back in to cahms , finally saw them yesterday initial assessment appointment (2nd one he's had)
We were in there for 2 hours , gave huge amount of detail. They were very nice , nodded at the right place , were sympathetic and said he ticks all the boxes and definitely needs help.
Then tell me that other than counselling again that we don't want they won't offer anything else. Can put on adhd pathway which takes years to see anyone and nothing in the meantime. He desperately needs to see a psychiatrist and be put on medications.

I said to them anyone over the age of 18 can go to their GP, tell them they are anxious and be prescribed something there and then. They will also be referred to a mental health team to be assessed by a psychiatrist if needed. Why can my son not receive anything when he suffers from extremely debilitating physical symptoms from the anxiety. Every day he gets worse and there will be untold damage by the time he gets to 18.
It is so frustrating .

See a private pyschiatrist. Where are you?

Can you get some money together? Go private, it's not fair but he'll end up aging out of camhs before he gets any help.

Been there with both my children. Took two suicide attempts and continuous self harming for my eldest to be given anti depressants. This was after she had exhausted counselling/cbt/activity therapy with CAMHS. I had the same argument as you. It took five years. My youngest was given beta blockers for anxiety by the gp. CAMHS did two detailed assessments, said she shouldn't be in mainstream school, offered a couple of family therapy sessions (we went, useless, none of her issues have anything to do with family) and discharged us. CAMHS are useless and not fit for purpose unfortunately.

Oh, and school can refer for adhd/asd assessment. You might as well get him on the waiting list now.

Why are you refusing counselling? It’s possible a counsellor could refer your DC to something or someone else. Counselling for a seven year old is very different from counselling for a fifteen year old. I’d be taking any help offered if I were you, OP.

Been through same with daughters. Private psychiatrist is the only way to get medication

My son is on the Autism and ADHD pathways and it takes forever. Id just get him on the pathway. He's going to age out of CAMHS but they will move him onto the adult one. In the meantime take the counselling. Don't pay to go private as you can't then get drugs on NHS and you still need NHS diagnosis.

You can choose NHS right to choose for ADHD assessment which is much shorter wait times. I agree with seeing someone privately about the anxiety though if you can find the money.

@ZenNudist not correct, once stabilised on medication the GP takes over prescribing via a Shared Care Pathway

When my severely anxious adhd dd saw CAMHS they told her to take a ‘nice bubble bath’ and light a candle. She also got a certificate

Made no difference of course. They are shit. She self harmed 2 weeks after discharge.

We resorted to paying £100 a week for a private therapist. She’s worth every penny, my DD is a different child.

GPs in our area will not share care with private providers after many bad experiences. It would be best to check with your GP before spending money to avoid disappointment

GPs are not obliged to do this and many wont.

We have children at work where we have sourced private assessments and then diagnoses for, only for the GP/CAMHS to then refuse to pick it up

No our GP won’t pick it up. They are now being advised not to as it is seen as being subsidised by nhs.

Despite the fact no one can get an assessment on nhs.

Risk: benefit of medication is different for children vs adults. SSRIs can increase risk of suicide in teens. Medication is most effective in combination with therapy for everyone. Why not accept the offer and you will then be under the service and can ask to see the NHS psych. It makes no sense to refuse what is being offered

Right to choose pathway for ND assessment and medication - should take under a year. Buy melatonin from piping rock online and use that to help him sleep. Private psychiatrist appointment for antidepressant or anti anxiety prescription.

For our GPs it’s because shared care should mean that the GP can easily get guidance of queries arise in future about side effects, dose adjustments or interactions with other meds. It is hard to see how a private provider can do this as they would need to be paid. Mostly they are just uncontactable by the GP leaving them with an unresolvable issue as ADHD meds are beyond a GPs scope of practice.

I agree!

@Hadenough91625if you think your son has autism and ADHD then the first thing that needs to happen is assessment for these.

It’s different in each area but generally assessment will be done by pediatrics but sometimes CAMHS can assess too. What’s the system in your area?

If school felt he had ADHD and autism at 7 I’m confused why a referral wasn’t pushed for then. If the wait is long in your area, can you push for referral privately through Right To Choose?

One of the difficulties will be that without this assessment it’s difficult to really know if medication would be helpful.

What medication are you looking for? It may not be OCD for example, it might be his difficulties are in the context of autism. If he’s struggling with concentration and focus then that could be ADHD but he can’t have treatment without assessment first.

The reason you have to go through CAMHS first is because you need proper oversight of prescribed medication from a consultant who understands mental health and neurodivergence in young people.

There’s also an issue with asking for medication but refusing other help. Medication should never be the first line of treatment tried, so a family refusing counselling and wanting pills won’t get very far.

I’m just waiting in the car for DD16 who is currently in yet another CAMHS planning appointment. She has no faith in them at all & tbh I don’t have much either. We just seem to go round in circles & DD asks “ How ill do they need me to be”? Mental health provision for children & young people is woefully inadequate. We can’t afford to go private but may consider taking out a loan or asking family to help.

Counselling isn't right for every kid, the option of it seems to have limited the offer of other options.

My asd son was so so anxious and suicidal I honestly couldn't leave the room, never mind the house. Camhs were utterly useless.

The only thing I could do was stop all talk of education outside the home, stop work and basically be his teacher / therapist myself.

Thankfully he's my youngest and I was in social housing so could go on benefits and housing benefit, there was absolutely no help.

Hes better now.

He is on the waiting list for adhd assessment now as they have accepted it but he will have aged out of the service by the time we are seen in our area.
When we first went when he was 7 they said he didn't meet all the criteria to be accepted for referral even though us, himself and school all provided huge amounts of evidence.
It is not ongoing counselling that is provided. It is 6 sessions and that is it. Due to sons issues he doesn't listen or retain anything that has been said so it's completely pointless.
I've looked at right to choose but nearly all say not taking on currently or private.
GPS in our area don't accept private diagnosis so that wouldn't help with medication
So it just looks like we have got to wait until his 18th birthday!

It’s a shame he didn’t get an assessment when he was 7 and I’m sorry to hear that. What has happened since, was there a reason he wasn’t re-referred before this?

Also, has your son experienced any trauma or adverse childhood experiences? Sometimes that makes assessment of neurodevelopmental conditions more complex as they can present in a similar way.

There is no point to CAMHS unfortunately - theyre pretty much a service in name only gif vast majority of service users