Ds is depressed

[SparkleRainbow]

Has anyone got any experience of clinical psychologists and them helping children suffering from depression as a result of their disabilities?

Hi Sparkle, ds 6 has weekly 1:1 therapy at CAMHS with a clinical psychologist to help him deal with his anxieties (result of ASD).

He has therapy through play.

What was the first appointment with the clinical psychologist like, did you get a chance to talk to him/her without your ds being present?

CAMHS wouldn't accept my ds as his is as a resut of a "specific medical condition", their words not mine, but he has been accepted by some clinical psychologists associated with the hospital, I know no more than that, and the fact that there is a long waiting list!

my ds has seen psychologists,he was 8/9 hes now nearly 12 and has been discharged.
first meeting was with a team of specialists/psychologists going through history,asking loads of questions ...again...
then we were sent into a room with a 2 way mirror and he was observed without his knowledge,1 psychologist came in to talk and i guess the others were taking notes .
i then had a letter to take him monthly to see psychologist,i was always there they never asked me to leave ,he would just ask questions and talk to him and give advice.my ds still gets very down not wanting to get up,go out ect..but he does have good days

Did he open up to them straight away? I am not sure that my ds will talk to anyone. Not sure if it will be really useful, also ds doesn't yet know the full extent of his problems, he is only 7 and it is quite frightening even at 38!

i remember a lot of shrugs and dont knows.he saw same doctor all the time which helped
if i remember questions were {he carries this flea bitten monkey everywhere }
hi whats monkeys name?
hows school?
what have you been up to then?have you been out?brother still getting on your nerves?
the doctor was male and about 30 which helped.
then he would talk to me about things we need to try and focus on and things we should ignore.
my poor ds is 1 of 4 dc and sometimes finds it hard to cope with a busy household,he gets no need to wallow.
im scared too as there is a lot of depression in my family,with one member commiting suicide and other family members trying,frightened me death when 8 yr old ds says he wants to die .

My ds spends a lot of time being very quiet and withdrawn when he is thinking. When he does let it out he cries about wanting to be like all the other normal children, and how he wants to be a normal boy like his friends, his words not mine. Breaks my heart, when he says it's not fair, I don't want to be like this anymore.

has he got any brothers & sisters?does he go to main stream school?

Sparkle, first appointment was with ds present, although he left the room for about half an hour, so we had a chance to speak more openly. Lots of history taking.

Following that ds has weekly sessions where he meets with the same therapist. I then have a meeting about once a month with a different therapist to up date on progress etc and lots of how do i deal with this behaviour. They are constantly questioning whether you are reinforcing the behaviour or not.

I havent found them particularly helpful if im honest. They just keep telling me i am dealing with it well. Ds likes his therapist and enjoys going, although im yet to see any improvement, he is still getting anxious and injuring himself (lots of anxiety about school) yet CAMHS do not make recommendations to school.

Everything is done through play, so he never has to 'open up' as such. Therapist has noted that ds 'feels different'.

DS (15, cp) has suffered a lot with anxiety for the last few years, much of it resulting from his feeling vulnerable due to his disability. He worried about being alone, moving onto college, me getting out of the car to pay for petrol, his future physical health, lots of things. It will never totally go. And at last the practitioners agree there is an element of Aspergers which has somewhat complicated things. I am surprised that CAMHS are taking this seriously and really do want to help with strategies.
He has received some really good help from CAMHS although I have to attribute much of his progress to the specific nurse he saw who was very good. I do wish he hadn't told ds that it was OK to swear though.
I often had the opportunity to talk with the counsellor on my own although we always asked ds if that was ok first.

Although when ds was about 9 we asked for some help with his sleeping/settling down problems. Totally useless - don't know if it was them or if perhaps ds didn't really engage.
After 6 sessions some CPN came round, showed us two pictures ds had drawn, one of his bedroom which was all blue (yes, and his actual bedroom was all blue) and one of the front room which was all terracotta (yes, and our actual front room was all terracotta). So the CPN says 'this shows that X wants to be with you where the colours are all warmer'.
So we thought 'codswallop', put a digital telly in his bedroom so he could watch Animal Planet, haven't seen him past 9pm since.
Apologies for the terracotta front room, it was c.2002.

They do come up with some stupid ideas/interpretations don't they! I think that is what is worrying me slightly, them creating issues where there are none, and missing the ones that are there. Last night he cried and cried saying he only felt safe when I was with him. `Still no needs about when we will get an appointment. I wonder how long to leave it before I chase them.

wfrances thanks for responding.... yes ds is in mainstream, he is 7 and the oldest of three, I have dd1 aged 5 and dd2 aged 1 (nearly 2)

He has a genetic condition which causes severe pain, joint damage, poor kinesthetic awareness and development of poor gross motor skills. Until last year it was pretty manageable, but a year ago his condition progressed into his spinal column and caused him to develop a lifethreatening complication. He doesn't know this, he is too young to deal with the understanding and coming to terms with it, but he does know we have to try and prevent damage to his spinal column, as far as he is concerned because it really hurts.

What I don't want to happen is the clinical pyschologist to tell him all the facts, before dh and I think he is ready for it. He is just struggling with being different, he doesn't need to know it could cause more severe outcomes.

Thanks everyone for responding.