Any recommendations for a psychotherapist for ds with ASD? CAMHS waiting lists too long.

[pinkorkid]

DS is refusing school again since Easter holidays - issues to do with anxiety around social situations, intrusive thoughts, possible depression, growing self-awareness of his differences, self-consciousness about tics etc. (Background is that he was previously out of school for about 18 months after failing to cope on starting mainstream secondary and after a long battle gained a place at a very good special school where he was initially happy.)

Although he has a long history with CAMHS, they insisted he had to be treated as a new referral. We spoke to GP who agreed to make an urgent referral. Took 2 weeks for the letter to be sent. CAMHS say mid June at the earliest for an initial screening appointment to evaluate whether he needs to be seen by anyone or not, then who knows how many weeks on another waiting list. Meanwhile the longer he is out of school the more entrenched his demand avoidant behaviour will become, plus anxiety levels will continue to escalate.

We are on a very low income so can't really afford to go private but will eat macaroni cheese for next 3 months attempt to fund private consultation if that is the only way to get help.

But we're not sure how to go about finding the right person. Do we need to see a clinical psychiatrist/psychologist/ some other type of therapist? He has responded well to cognitive behavioural therapy in the past.

Ideally we would like personal recommendations from parents whose dc have had similar problems and been successfully treated. We are in the south-east of England, so London, Surrey, Sussex, Kent would be most accessible but we would travel further for the right person.

Meanwhile the plan is to approach PALS to see if we can get anywhere through the complaints procedure re the overlong waiting times but not holding out too much hope there.

(Need to go to work shortly so will not be able to acknowledge any replies until this evening but thanks in advance if anyone can help.)

have you spoken to young minds? They may be able to advise you on what type of therapist may be helpful. They can also do a consultation with you over the phone. I spoke to them when my ds was school refusing and they were very helpful.

Thank you corny, that's a really good idea. I'll ring them in the morning. Now you've reminded me someone mentioned them when he was out of school first time round but he was too young for their services then.

pinkorkid

Does CAMHS know he is out of school?

What I'd suggest is get the GP to do the referral to CAMHS then when CAMHS has received it, phone and tell CAMHS that DS is out of school, is highly anxious, and describe any ways that you feel his mental health might be deteriorating with the delay. CAMHS can usually offer a quicker appointment if needed, but you might need to push for it.

I would say that CAMHS involvement rather than a private therapist would be best as CAMHS are more able to work with school / education in a multi-agency way to address the education side, whereas a private therapist would probably just be able to offer one-to-one therapy (which CAMHS could also offer) but would be unlikely to liaise and work with the school or any other relevant services.....and sometimes with issues such as this one-to-one therapy without the multi-agency working is not enough.

Sadly many CAMHS services are massively overstretched these days, but they are often still the best service for certain things.

I'm a CAMHS clinician by the way.

CAMHS didn't do anything for my ds apart from meds when he was out of school for over a year.

not getting at you selks - just saying

Sorry to hear that Robotcornysilk.

I'm a CAMHS clinician and in my service we take a child being out of school because of mental health / psychological reasons very seriously.

Thank you Selks for answering. Can we move to your service, please? Last time round we were initially seen very quickly. But like corny support was mainly in terms of medication. We had an unsuccessful trial with risperidone. It took a year before they agreed to offer cbt which thankfully worked amazingly well.

Sadly CAMHS are already aware that he is school refusing and although his case will go to screening meeting next week, we have been told that, regardless of their conclusions, the next available appointment with anyone in the service is mid june. DS ' welfare may be my top priority but even if there are no other children with needs judged as more urgent than his, I think that is too long for him to wait.
Do you know if we can request that ds be seen by a neighbouring CAMHS or referred to a tertiary service as his needs are complex and can't be met locally to an acceptable timescale?
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

I'm not 100% sure but I think that if you are unhappy with one CAMHS service you can request to be seen by a neighbouring one.
Sorry that you and your DS are going through this.

Thanks Selks. If they still say 6 weeks after screening meeting, we will ask if can be seen elsewhere any quicker.

this woman is great, but she isn't cheap! PM me if you want more details.

Harass CAMHS, though, in the meantime. The more you make a nuisance of yourself, the more likely they will see me. Trust me. Google search email addresses (they hate giving them out) and start emailing. Leave a message at least once a week saying you are just checking if their have been any cancellations of appointments or changes in the waiting list.

Good luck.

see YOU, not me

Freudian slip?

I'm sorry but CAMHS don't take a child being out of school seriously...........mine has been out over 2 year!

As for young minds they would deal with severe learning disability or school phobia for us, so hopefully you get somewhere.

CAMHS here were brilliant eventually, once the referal was actually accepted.

Seems one of the contributing factors to accepting it, was school refusal.

Thank you everyone for your advice and sharing your experiences.

LovelyLovelyWine - thanks for that link. It looks like a great service but seems to be aimed primarily at pre-school children with autism. (DS is 14 now) but i will email her to see if she works with older children too. I'll get googling re the email addresses.
Dev - thanks for recommendation re young minds - I'm glad they've been able to help you.
Claw - last time round (amazingly in retrospect) DS was given an emergency appointment within a week but there doesn't appear to be the same sense of urgency this time. I expect it is more likely to be that they are just under too much demand or seriously understaffed in this area. I'm glad they were so good for you.

sorry Pink it was meant to be wouldn't help SLD or our school phobia.

Oh Dev so sorry to hear that. I hoped that you had found someone to help you and ds.

Pink, i see what you mean, first time around for us at CAMHS ds was engaging in self injuries behaviour (he ended up in hospital) and school refusal.

He was discharged a few months ago from CAMHS after a year and half. I phoned them the other day, as his self injuries behaviour is becoming extensive again and it was kind of 'well we have identified the problem is school, its now down to you to sort it out with school' kind of thing.

CAMHS do appear to not want to get involved with school, they do not see it as their role to give educational recommendations. Although they did support my application for a statement, they tend to leave the recommendations to someone else.

We were more or less told when discharged last time that they had done all they could for DS. Problem is children's needs aren't static. I think they must know this surely but it is, like many other services, resources driven.

When discharged both myself and school were told that ds's needs would be ongoing and both myself and school were expected to continue to meet these.

I think school refusal speaks volumes ie chid is experiencing and seeing school as a threatening environment and its school who need to address these issues. Thats easier said than done though!

Well I eventually managed to get it through to school so they came to collect DS from home, they failed to remove DS from home to school, said they couldn't do it then called it a day!

In the past in meetings they say how happy DS is in school omitiing they coldn't get him to go either.

They have since been eliminated from all meetings.

Devient, do you feel if school had made some changes, implemented some expert recommendations etc, etc, it would have been different for your ds?

Maybe not once it got to that point, as it was probably too late, but at the start?

Defo!!!! I told them what they were but they knew him best iyswim!!

They didn't agree with the suggestions at all and some were minimum.

However it was special school and who am I to know a child with complex needs better than them??!!

Pink, can i ask how school are dealing with his school refusal?

Does he have any help for his difficulties in school?

I suppose my point being, that ds was refusing school because he literally had no help or support, he was punished for his difficulties etc.

Although i removed him from that school and found another, where they have provided some help, this help is not enough and the cracks are begining to show again.

CAMHS therapy did help ds, in fact i think it has helped him to cope with school and not refuse it, but once CAMHS therapy is removed, he then cant cope again. No amount of therapy in the world is going to help, if school are not applying the appropriate help/support. It needs to be a joint effort from everyone concerned.

For ds, i think CAMHS are right to some extent, the problem is with school and its them who i need to take it up with. With the right help/support in school ds would be able to cope much better.

Devientenignma, "They failed to remove DS from home to school"

Nobody can 'remove' a child or force them from home to school (bar a parent).

Claw4 "they tend to leave the recommendations to someone else"...... CAMHS aren't educational specialists, education services are.