Bit upset with CAMHS Assessment

[BourbonChicken]

15 year old DS took OD of paracetamols last Sunday night. He was assessed by CAMHS on ward. I mentioned to the assessor in confidence my suspicions that I feel that DS shows many symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome.

We had follow up assessment at CAMHS today and the person carrying this out (same person who saw him in hospital) saw my son and myself together. She just came out with the fact that he possibly has Autism. My son is upset and angry now and obviously worried.

I don't think that she should have dropped this on him without a definite clinical diagnosis having been made. He is now gutted as he knows what Autism is. Surely there was no need to upset him unless we know for sure that he has it?

That was highly inappropriate and unprofessional. Autism can't possible be diagnosed after one contact and the CAMHS worker is not qualified in any event. I think you need to make a complaint about this to stop her doing it again. It isn't a case of autism or not, but the modern day thinking is that a person may be on the autistic spectrum, and I think the diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist with a qualification to diagnose.

Of course your son is going to be upset. Can you try to tell him that she was out of order and should have diagnosed autism because it is highly likely he doesn't have this and diagnosis takes some considerable time and he could be on the "edge" of the autistic spectrum. But please complain and get your son properly assessed.

Hi. Thank you for your reply. I have responded exactly how you said. I told DS that the CAMHS worker is not really in a position to diagnose autism and that it would just be one of the things they would look at when they were assessing him. I think that the most likely thing is that he is on the edge of the spectrum, ie Aspergers. He is very frightened to suddenly "Find out" that he is deemed to be Autistic.

We won't be meeting up with this particular worker again as she has referred him to a colleague for counselling. I feel too concerned about how my son is feeling to devote any energy towards complaining about the CAMHS worker. I feel that I need to focus on getting him through the assessment process. I imagine that if he does have Aspergers, it will be picked up as part of this.