ADHD Reassessment by CAMHS

[Fiftyfiveandcounting]

Posting here to see if there’s more traffic.

DD13 was diagnosed privately with ADHD and has been taking medication to help with focus at school for around 18 months. We thought we had to ask the GP for shared care in order for them to issue her monthly prescription but in fact this has resulted in her being referred to CAMHS for a reassessment of her diagnosis.
we are very happy with the diagnosis, it has explained a lot and prevented a lot of things becoming a bigger issue. The meds help her at school and she is happy to not take them at other times.
if CAMHS disagree with the diagnosis what actually happens? We have been asked to confirm we are aware this may happen. The irony is the provider we used has just started offering assessments under Right to Choose.
I don’t want a big battle I just want her to have the help and support she needs ongoing.

If the NHS assessment disagrees you are unlikely to get ADHD medication on the NHS.

The mistake you made was in thinking that CAMHS exists to help children. The Tories put an end to that many years ago. My experience of CAMHS has been that it helps no one and exists to place children in queues or to refuse to even put them in the queue and to think that pointless admin and cross referral is it's true purpose. If I was you, I'd get a new GP and start again with the shared care option.

This is so scary tbh. DD was diagnosed and we have been really happy with the outcome. She takes meds as needed but is generally much happier knowing the reason for her issues and this has enabled us to work around things to prevent them being much bigger problems. We have experience of undiagnosed ADHD until adulthood and wanted to get in before it became a real issue and felt we’d done that. To have it all undone by the NHS and CAMHS would be awful.

Do you think it worth an appointment with the GP to discuss our concerns?

Would we be better to leave DD with privately prescribed medication until she turns 18? Are adults with ADHD treated better generally for shared care? I dislike the fact I’m being made to feel like I’m making the diagnosis up. We have plenty of family experience of neurodivergence and no one gets their child diagnosed and gives them controlled meds for the hell of it. I am getting to the point where I want to cancel CAMHS and just carry on as we are.

If you haven’t already spoken to the GP directly I would start there. This is why if continuing private prescriptions is an issue it is recommended you speak with the GP before going ahead with a private assessment.

The GP may not agree to shared care at 18 either, so I wouldn’t bank on that. And changing GP may not work. There’s no guarantee the new GP would take on shared care, especially if in the same ICB.

@BrumToTheRescue We were originally told the waiting list was so long we should go private especially as no issues raised by school so that is what we did. Now here are with a diagnosis and a child doing well so should we be risking that for shared care. I have read that unless the child is disruptive or having serious issues at school, a diagnosis is unlikely regardless of actual lived experience and of course being a girl the issue will of masking plays a largely unrecognised part.

None of that changes what I wrote though. Some GPs not being willing to take on shared care is why it is recommended you speak with the GP before going ahead with a private assessment if continuing private scripts is an issue.