Could I have your honest opinions on CAMHS please?

[whateverisabeartodo]

I've worked in mental health in education for some time now and have been offered a role in CAMHS.

There is a good career progression, decent salary, job security, CPD, lots of things I don't get in my current role. However, in my area CAMHS don't have a great reputation and I worry I'd be selling my sole to leave a job I love and believe in for something that is better for me but maybe won't fulfil me as much.

So, just wondered if anyone has experience as a parent of a child accessing CAMHS and what your opinion was? Thank you!

What @Schmz said. You'll be looked down on because you're not a registered nurse.

@Schmz

OP - in my experience in clinical settings you will be disadvantaged by not having a core profession - BACP / BABCP Accreditation is not seen in the same way as NMC / ClinPsych OT

They been recruiting outside of core professions due to the severe difficulties with recruiting -
If I were you I’d check out how your progression will compare to your colleagues in Cahms with nursing / psychology

Thanks, I have checked this out extensively and still qualify for more career progression opportunities than I do currently.

I don't compare myself to nurses, OTs etc any more than I do to the teachers who work in my school so while I see your anxiety on this point it's not something that would affect me personally.

Yep @cdba88 looked down on, certainty not viewed as more qualified than most Cahms staff - quite the opposite - ask the staff there without nurse registration!!

Not good here I'm afraid. DD 7 has depressive episodes and bad anxiety, she has regular panic attacks at school. After waiting a year or so being passed about and referred to X y z with letters, they assessed her and said she shows no signs of anxiety and it's me that's making her anxious at home and they offered me a parenting course.

For my niece who self harms etc, her mother's been trying to get her seen properly for years.

Another terrible experience here. We were ‘fortunate’ enough to get on a parenting course with them. They proceeded to read from a script whenever a problem arose. I knew more than they did. I was told that there was nothing medically wrong with my child, that it must be my parenting. They sent out a ‘specialist’ to monitor my parenting. The specialist came to the conclusion that actually it wasn’t my parenting, that I did everything they would recommend, and they didn’t know why my child was struggling. We were left no better off. Years later, after continuously telling all and sundry that my child was struggling, I was fortunate to have the top paediatric person at our hospital overhear my story. They said “it’s clear you know your child, and I promise we will do every test going. I can’t however promise that we will find anything.” They found that my child did actually have something medically wrong with them (more than one thing) and since being given medication, my child is well again.

l felt completely alone, it was one of the absolute worst times of my life, my son couldn't get to school because of a panic disorder, there was no help, the GP' s were useless, Cahms were even worse, the pressure the school put me under was horrific, l spent 3 years relentlessly trying to get my son back on track and thankfully he has vastly improved but it has really taken its toll on me.
Nobody seems to be asking why so many young people are suffering like this, what has gone so wrong ?

If they had three times the qualified staff, things would improve. DD turned 18 while waiting to be seen so was discharged and had to start again with adult services, who then discharged because she told them she wasn't suicidal that day.

@kittybee

Another terrible experience here. We were ‘fortunate’ enough to get on a parenting course with them. They proceeded to read from a script whenever a problem arose. I knew more than they did. I was told that there was nothing medically wrong with my child, that it must be my parenting. They sent out a ‘specialist’ to monitor my parenting. The specialist came to the conclusion that actually it wasn’t my parenting, that I did everything they would recommend, and they didn’t know why my child was struggling. We were left no better off. Years later, after continuously telling all and sundry that my child was struggling, I was fortunate to have the top paediatric person at our hospital overhear my story. They said “it’s clear you know your child, and I promise we will do every test going. I can’t however promise that we will find anything.” They found that my child did actually have something medically wrong with them (more than one thing) and since being given medication, my child is well again.

Wow kittybee, that sounds like quite a journey. I have had similar with a client who was suffering with PANDAS and only MH issues were being considered.

Dd (autistic) has been referred two or three times for anxiety. They declined all the referrals. Fortunately we were able to see someone privately who prescribed medication. Local private counselling was full because CAMHS is declining so many.

Your day would be full of only the people in absolute crisis.

Get kids off the books by any means necessary, whether it's appropriate or not.

DSD16 was urgently referred by GP, following a LOT of trauma, and they recommended that she just ups her private counselling sessions to three a week, thanks very much, toodle-oo!

I'm not sure many families could just summon up £600 a month to pay for private services following an NHS urgent referral. We certainly can't. But hands are tied now, what do we do??!

GP is pissed off, we're pissed off, she's still in a real pickle - CAHMS have her ticked off though 🙄

My experience was they were actually harming my teenager. We had a weeks experience with several meetings over a week following a suicide attempt. Some of the staff were good, some were really thick & insensitive. They questioned Ds lots - the same questions asked numerous times again & again by different people. Bearing in mind he was totally traumatised & withdrawn after felling suicidal for months and this was making him worse. After a week I asked one guy what they were doing, who all these people were & what qualifications did they have, plus what was their purpose in asking all these questions?
He said they were assessing him. I asked why when he was already under the care of a Psychiatrist? We were still waiting for the antidepressants to kick in. They subsequently signed Ds off.
I will never contact them again.
If your child is suicidal they will not keep them safe. Hospitals do not keep your child safe & there are minimal beds now in mental health. I felt Camhs ( it's changed its name in my area) is purely a box ticking exercise for covering their backs. It's not fit for purpose. God help you in my area if you can't afford private Care.

CAMHS are awful.

I've seen the services in my county turn away children who really need help- any excuse to discharge a child.

Staff are always off sick or changing.

Staff sometimes have a real bad CBA attitude (not all).

Finding a genuine CAMHS therapist is rare.

Hopeless. I work in pastoral support in a school and they discharged an obviously suicidal Year 10 student of ours recently. So sad that children and adolescent mental healthcare is so desperately underfunded

A seven year journey. Obviously what I’ve put here is the bear minimum, but it was utterly heartbreaking. I was made to feel completely inadequate, and ridiculous, but I never gave up. The local doctor has since given a conference on my child, because although it was unusual at their age, a simple blood test would’ve shown the issue. To be fair to Camhs they weren’t the only ones to say there was nothing medically wrong. I owe my sanity, and my child’s health, to that paediatric specialist. I hope your conclusion was a positive one.

@Tdcp

Not good here I'm afraid. DD 7 has depressive episodes and bad anxiety, she has regular panic attacks at school. After waiting a year or so being passed about and referred to X y z with letters, they assessed her and said she shows no signs of anxiety and it's me that's making her anxious at home and they offered me a parenting course.

For my niece who self harms etc, her mother's been trying to get her seen properly for years.

Yes Camhs loves to blame parents.

Have worked within Children's service for 25 years (SW) a MSc in Psychotherapy for Children and Young People and full BACP accreditation.

CAMHS are shit.

SHIT

Mixed experience. DC finally got to work with one very good practitioner, but had earlier experiences with ineffectual support, and also with one aggressive practitioner who told her to find God.

Practice was not trauma informed. Also not tailored to her needs, but to statistically effective approaches at population level. She waited years to be seen.

The people working for CAMHs are good, kind, sympathetic but the service is abysmal. Severe lack of funding, they are in crisis management every day leaving no time for treatment.

There is no treatment, we are still waiting many years on for the planned and promised intervention.
We get a telephone medication review once every twelve weeks as that's a legal requirement and that's it pretty much.

Many years ago we were in desperate circumstances and our young person was admitted. Our post discharge support to parents providing 24 hour round the clock monitoring, was a single phone call.
The discharge plan had stated daily visits from CAMHS to support parents. Even when a child is that acutely ill there is no support.

There is no hope or support from CAMHS. Only pills. It's not fit for purpose. I second the poster saying it worse than no help because it raises the expectations of the ill child. It gives hope that is always taken away. Nothing materialises.

Sadly the adult services are worse.

Dishonest
Disingenuous
Incompetent
Disorganised
Uncaring
Culture of excuses
Inefficient
Parent blaming

In Surrey thousands were spent on a CAMHS review in 2009; there was a further review in 2014 which in 2015 led to additional cash of £2.3m which they pissed up the wall on an additional tier of bureaucracy which was failing within 18 months. In 2018 this led to another review which was independent. The local Hospital's risk rating for young people admitted needing camhs support has just been increased because there is no support. I fail to understand why there is so much money available to spend on review after review to identify the service is inadequate and failing rather than spending the money on extra drs.

GPs blame camhs, camhs blames the ccg and the government, the CCG blames CAMHS and the GPs. The government allocates money to the CCGs who commission the CAMHS services. They do not commission well and they are not properly holding trusts to account.

In 2015 my dd had 4 CAMHS assessments after an emergency admission. Every assessment said it was OK to wait because she wasn't a high risk (she was only cutting and overdosing). They offered something eventually that was inadequate and inaccessible. I asked for an alternative. They wrote to my GP to say dd's case had been closed because the family had refused an intervention.

Luckily we had £7000 plus BUPA to put in place essential care and therapy via an adolescent psychiatrist. DD got better.

Absolutely useless

My self harming suicidal teenager has been seen for triage 3 times- sent on an online 121 to understand asd which involved a lecture about how people with asd can feel lonely pointless (!) have poor eye contact, no empathy then asked what their special talent is ffs

And then an online automated sleep course which didn't help - they stay awake for upto 5 days and nights, with no follow up

They're only alive now as one of us stays with them 24 hours

School tried to speed up the referral and then referred to ss which meant even more stress for them as they were interviewed with out us allowed to be present and it exacerbated the self harm (we were discharged with no follow up) and were told they couldn't help either

We're still waiting for Camhs to see them properly 2 years later

With the smallest, they've been waiting for almost 3 years for an asd assessment.

The CAMHS gatekeeping is sphinx-like. Meeting threshold is so difficult, your child has to be so very ill. The offer of parenting courses etc further serve to make already difficult situations worse. You are never more vulnerable than when caring for a very unwell child, and the powerlessness of the referral process has been one of the worst experiences of my life at a time when I needed every sliver of resourcefulness and resilience I could muster.

Stay away, worst service that ever existed.
No compassion or understanding from any health professional

If every person on this thread who has had a bad experience wrote to their MP and CCG traction towards improvement may arise.

@RosesAndHellebores

If every person on this thread who has had a bad experience wrote to their MP and CCG traction towards improvement may arise.

My family have had involvement with CAMHS in two different regions of the country. The most charitable I could say is that its been turned into a job creation scheme for mid level and upper level bureaucrats.

Letters to MPs resulted in boiler plate "we are spending more money than ever before blah blah blah". CCG letters receive either a nil response or similar boiler plate.

At some point the state of CAMHS in this country will become another NHS scandal where everyone expresses shock and horror that nothing was done and pretends that nobody was complaining at the time.

Our family found the money for private treatment and the children in question are now healthy adults. In one case the treatment was from a psychiatrist who will no longer work with CAMHS.

OP you might find you can actually help more children by joining a private practice with some pro bono capacity. Its a disgrace but I know of many families who scraped together money within the family and friends group in desperation for their DC treatment. I don't know of any who regretted it.