We want referral to CAMHS

[2006hildy]

DS dx?d ASD emerging speech age 5
This is why I feel he needs to be referred by CAMHS:
I am on edge permanently because I don?t know what he will do next. Eg flooding the bathroom and it ?raining? in the kitchen.
He has no sense of danger and is a runner so going to school is a nightmare.
He is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine.
He stims by spinning objects.
Does not know how to share.
Rather solitary, tends to play alone.
Does not understand if someone is hurt, upset or feeling ill.
Does not have at least one friend.
Is nervous or clingy in new situations and easily loses confidence.
Gets on better with adults than with other children.

We would like strategies and ways in coping with him on the above subjects.
Conclusion
G has peer problems and poor prosocial behaviour. We are unsupported in this area of his life. We don?t want a crisis but he does not understand the severity of the situations.
What will happen next if you do think there are issues?
Anything to add or comments of how to get referred to CAMHS gratefully received.

Im not quite sure what you would think CAMHS could help with, they are a metal health service.
Most of what you have said, appears with many children with ASD.
He needs work on social skills, and you need help to manage his ASD behaviours.
In this area we have a autism advisory service that would help with this and school SENCO.

Hi I don't think cahms will be any help is he diagnosed with ASD?
My DD has HF ASD and very bad anxiety and tics and bites herself raw with stress and says she wants to die.we went to see them a few weeks ago and they have discharged her because her mental health needs ant severe enough?? You need to speak to your communication and autism team for strategies or a Paed to get a diag CAHMS are generally for mental health probes like ADHD OCD ODD or if you want meds sorry I've had my faith in them killed.

Ds got dx ( aspergers/HFA ) through Camhs and they also ran a course to help with his transitions They also dx him with dyspraxia and he had a series of sessions with that too. so they CAN help... But I think it depends on your area and the services they offer.

Camhs diagnosed DD2 with aspergers. it was the only route we had to diagnosis.
although now DD has been rereffered to the healthy minds people. again, the only option we have.

but actually i think i resent that a bit. DD doesn't have mental health problems. she has aspergers. hmmmmmm. I feel an AIBU coming on.

but then i suppose the anxiety and stuff that she has because of aspergers is sort of mental health stuff.

oh i don't know. i have had and am waffling.

anyway. back t the point - OP have you asked the GP to refer you to whoever can help and/or diagnose?

I am not sure what camhs could do to be honest. I do know that I was told that should DS receive a dx of ASD then they would wave us goodbye as they dont have the facilities or training to help.......

The most they could offer is a visit to the school to explain social stories and organise some training for them but that was about it.

I would say perhaps autism outreach to visit school a they can suggest things. Small group work is good for social skills, sharing games etc and perhaps some calmiing techniques that could help him?

Camhs here don't dx Asd, thats done by specialist autism clinic at CDC.
Camhs however are trying to help dd1 with her anxiety issues ect as other team have said her levels are higher than expected than a child with autism.

Thanks for your comments I really appreciate them all.
Yes, I think I maybe barking up the wrong tree then.
H

We've been referred to CAMHS for our ds, by the GP, who I went to see about a dx of autism for ds (have posted on another thread about this which nobody has responded to ), also referred to CAMHS by the school. Have been told we have months to wait for the appointment to come through.

The comments on this thread have made me a bit worried to be honest.

Shagmund, most people post when they're fed up with Camhs, who are really variable across the country. Part of this is obviously whether individual staff are helpful or not. Some departments are very good at the part of their job which involves emotionally disturbed families. A few deal mainly with this, and not much else, thats why many posters feel frustrated: if this isn't the child's issue, such interventions aren't helpful. 'Enhancing the skillmix of the frontline staff' means the local clinical psychologist sees fewer patients but a nursery has a training session on supporting anxious children: this is my bugbear.

But a lot of variability is due to local nhs arrangements. In some, the hospital paediatric department does suspected asd. In others it's based in community child health (when we were young, they were called school doctors etc). And in some it's Camhs. A few areas still do a mishmash, as and when, assessment service. whatever the local arrangement their first test is 1. Does this cause a big problem and 2. Is there another more likely cause which needs ruling out before considering asd.

ASD assessment should usually be a multidisciplinary (team) assessment, with the use of some sort of formal tool (various, one is called ados) and diagnosis not confirmed too fast. The NICE guidelines on asd are worth a read.

Whether anyone is any good for your child also depends partly on what background information you can give them: a decent observation report by someone professional who knows about asd is very useful. Plus another parent with asd experience can tell you what's important to mention.

I'm rationing my Internet use at the mo, so apologies if I 'blank' any threads.

2006hildy, some Camhs have a behaviour support nurse consultant, or a specialist psychologist: if yours does, they can help. They teach you how to develop (or reduce) just a few particular behaviours that will make your child safer and help home life a lot. Eg not running off.

In our area they only work with children with learning disability ie iq

Ask your health visitor or school nurse (or maybe gp?) to ring Camhs and find out if they have challenging behaviour service. Or specialist nurse or psychologist in LD or ASD. If so, get them to refer. If not, try occupational therapy who might know about childproof taps etc.

Sadly support after diagnosis seems to be severly lacking. Dd3 was dx'ed withASD in september and was discharged from CAMHS because ASD is not a mental health issue. Since then school have been great but we are getting no input about how to help her at home.

This is the only place i get advice apart from the SENCO at school and even she is strugging to get SALT and outreach services in for Dd3.

I have joined a support group which is good because we can share our worries and have put myself on a waiting list for a course. I would definite speak to parent partnership and see what is around in your area.

Sorry if this doesnt help much, good luck.

2006hildy
every area is different and some have more awareness than others. You already have a dx so I would ring them yourself and ask them what they offer in the way of behaviour management, what they can do for anxiety and stimming,

SALT can advise the school on social skills work as in small group work, games that involve sharing with a TA and one other child etc

Has your child seen an OT? for a sensory profile? as it may be that he has some sensory issues that are making him act someways.

camhs are able to refer you to these people (at least mine are) but so can school call one in and so can pead refer you :)

To be honest I have learnt more from scanning the threads on here in what to ask for and how to try and help some ASD issues than anywhere else so why not plan a strategy list in order of priority.

eg: secure home: One thing I have found with my DS is no matter how much I talk about not doing or not touching he is totally compelled to do the same things again and again due to sensory reasons (as well as just plain stubborn!) So to get rid of wondering where he is or what he is up to or what he can reach I did a house sweep.
outside lock at top of bathroom door or security taps
in my case its keep shampoos, lotions, cleaning sprays, hairsprays etc well locked up as DS has an issue of just watching them poor away or sprays windows to watch them slide down. Door keys up high away from reach incase he decided to do a runner, window locks locked on vent as when he was small he had a habbit of climbing out and sitting on the sill!

Playing on his own:
Arrange a regular play date either with a friend or a child from family? basically not just you but someone outside of the house even if its an adult, to play turn taking, role playing, baking cakes together, team play decorating a box. All this is hard going as you have to be there all the time and cant relax and let them play on their own as its the social side you want to help him with.

Obsessions:
I have REAL problems with DS obsessions some have been fine in the public eye but he has a gun/lightsaber etc issue at present and as boys like guns in RL its a hard one to break as most kids he meets talks of heros! But what I do is limit him by using the clock. If DS plays a different game, or talks a different subject with me for a period of time then he is allowed X number of mins to talk on his subject or play his game. This was hard at first but I had to stick it out.

Clock: Try using the clock for pointing out how long till bed, how long sibling is watching programme for till its his turn for the TV, how long he plays a game of his sisters choice before he has a choice, how long till dinner etc etc. It can help stop the stressys and the "are we there yet" etc :)

Just some ideas which may or may not work and what I am STILL doing!

Oh and Empathy:

I make a point of mentioning I am sad right now, I know you are sad right now but, I know you are angry right now but. If he has done something good I make a thing of "I am really happy right now"

I use symbols of sad faces, happy faces on the fridge on how we are all feeling as DS is a visual learner.

There are coloured cards you can use red, amber etc but I havent used these perhaps someone else can tell you where and how to use them :)

This is more for learning how he feels and how we feel as a starting point. Empathy towards others is way down the line for us yet.

He definitely has anxieties and they seem to be getting worse e.g. does not want to go to birthday parties, doesn?t want strangers in his house, doesn?t like crowded places, has to sit in supermarket trolley in supermarket to feel safe I could go on. He is definitely a runner.

He was diagnosed ASD 2009

We are in Herts if that sheds any light.

I don?t know his IQ. Trying to get an Ed psych assessment too.

Well when Autism Advisory service were asked to give me support through TAC they gave me Support Groups 30 miles away so I found my own as well as internet support chats. I agree best support I have had is through websites like these. The SENCO is new I feel I know more than her.

Parent Partnership discharged me but they are always there if I need them. I just have not realised their full potentially yet and probably won?t unless I keep on chatting on this website.

OT is one thing we have been able to access and yes he has a sensory profile

coff33pot yours sounds like mine lol. You have some really good advice, how old is your DS?

If anybody has anything to add or comments all gratefully received thanks.
H

It would seem that the route to a diagnosis depends on where you are in the country. For us it was CAMHS that gave a DX of Apergers then no help from there. But having the "label " meant I could then push for the relevant help.

It seems from all the responses above though that the route to whoever will give you a DX is the GP.
So I would take your list from the opening paragraph to the GP and ask for a referral to whoever can help.

well im in herts, will come back to this thread later as im just dashing out. Happy to talk though Herts services, and support groups in the area who are very good :)

My DS is 6 2006hildy :)

I hope any of what I posted helps you. Its ideas really and may not necessarily help as every child is different and day to day stuff is different but something to work on untill you get referred somewhere x

We went to Paed. Who sent us to CAMHS. Camhs diagnosed ASD and also named it as Aspergers. Then Camhs washed their hands of us. Now back with paed. All very odd. It 'appears' that some places/county's use CAMHS to diagnose ASD, others don't use CAMHS at all. I think you need to find out what happens in your area, specifically.

Herts don't use camhs to dx Asd, they have clinics with specialist developmental paed.
Camhs here are pretty bad, you wait months for an appointment and generally if it's an autism issue rather than a mental health one they aren't much help.
I would call your autism advisory teacher attached to your child and ask for their advice .

Can concur with lisad123 that CAMHs in Herts is useless and you will get little back in terms of support from them. They also do not diagnose ASD.

In southern Hertfordshire, diagnosis is done at Harper House in Radlett. Very good set of multi-disciplenary professionals but difficult to get an appointment more demand than they can satisify. As it is a tertiary NHS service, you need a referral from a consultant ideally paed, to get an appointment. Even then, you will have to push hard and could wait in excess of 6-12 months possibly more.

Herts LEA does have advisory teachers but my experience was that you need a formal diagnosis in order to access the service and even then it can still take time.

Try Families in Focus for support. Attended a course they ran called Time Out from ADHD/ASD. Very good, met other carers and learnt lots.