CAMHS

[3Trees]

Hi,

So, here we are a little further down the long, and complex road of assessment etc.

DS, who possibly / probably has an ASD of some kind, is being referred to CAMHS. Which I know is Child (and adolescent) mental health.

Is this usual? I was told initially, he's go to a peadiatrician, but no, he's going to CAMHS.

dh says that in some authorities it's just that CAMHS gate keep statementing etc, is this true?

[3Trees]

OK, well that's a bit more reassuring that we are potentially at least going to the right place. Although, DH is going to telephone the SN HV today just to be sure

Thanks guys.

[3Trees]

Oh and SBMo5 - that's exactly what i feel I need help with, knowing how to react, and what to do etc. I don't have older children, though, so it took me a long time (and some pushing by his school) to realise that not all children behave as he does!

[3Trees]

OK, Dh spoke to the SN HV at QEII...

DS does NOT need to go to CAMHS. he's too young. Apparently some GPS don't know this.

he will be going to the community paediatrician, which is what I thought (having read up on here - thanks people!)

DH says she was very helpful, and made the process at least clear in terms of what happens next.

[genieinabottle]

We were refered to CAHMS by the consultant paed to whom we were refered by the community paed.

We had two appointments with Cahms.
First app. was a pre-assessment interview, where we went through our concerns (home and nursery) with the Cahms asd paed, she also did a few things with DS, interaction through play type. At the end of the app. she told us verbally that DS has autism (which confirmed what comm. paed had said about DS being on the spectrum) and said she would put his name on the waiting list for the full autism assessment.
Second app. was the full asd assessment with Cahms SALT, Paed, and clinical Psychologist. They did the ADI, ADOS and some non-verbal reasoning test (i can't remember the name), and they gave a formal dx of autism and speech and language disorder.

I know many people have had a bad experience with Cahms, but the one for our area i have found good and thorough. Cahms expertise and helpfulness varies a lot from area to area it would seem.
DS is 4.9y old btw and was assessed and dx two months ago.

Good luck.

[3Trees]

thank you.

she says that CAMHS here do school aged children, so ds at 3yrs 9 months is too young for them.

I am, however considering involving adult mental health services, just so that I don't go mad trying to figure out the processes!

[genieinabottle]

I see . Sadly the dx process can long winded and nebulous...

Where we are Cahms have two teams , one dealing with the under 5s and one for the above 5.
For us it was lucky that DS was under 5 as the assessment waiting list was a lot shorter.

[sooty16]

hi im new on here ,but im in the assessment stage 2,and through my gp was referred to camhs,you have a long chat to raise any concerns you may have ,and then if they feel they can help ,you get a case worker,they help lots of kids with loads of different things emotional,mental ,depression all sorts ,they have ot salt,ped etc all under one roof.and my son has just been referred inside camhs to the asd clinic.ados is our next step.hope this helps.

[3Trees]

thanks sooty. i don't know how old your ds is, but apparently CAMHS here is just for school aged children. (IF we need them then, I imagine they'll be where we would go)

We have our first trip to actually see anyone about this in the morning, when we'll get a clearer picture of what is going to happen, I hope.

[commonsense12345]

Beware CAMHS - they will drug your child up to the hilt - if they don't have mental health issues going into Camhs, they will by the time they leave. Avoid at all costs.

[Wantagoodname]

common why are you reviving loads of zombie Camhs threads??