CAMHS psych appt today, can she officially dx even though DS is against 'label'

[starfish71]

We are waiting on final statement for DS1 13 he is going to PRU in September, those who know bit of my story will know it is not ideal but with the circumstances regarding DS's anxiety it is FOR NOW the only option. (DS has been accepted to do a open university course in October so it is helping my feeling of useless mother ).

Anyway, we have this meeting today, DS does not want a 'label' but accepts he has aspergers but they won't dx unless he agrees.

Problem I have is that services through social services disability team that could help DS, referrals to groups, support that he would hopefully benefit from if not now then as he gets a bit older is not open to him without a dx.

Have checked twice with them now and even though he has a statement they won't help because of lack of dx.

Any ideas of anyway round this? Am feeling I am letting DS down not getting access to support which he may need.

The label is a signpost for support and help not a tatoo and no one will know he has Aspergers unless he tells them?

I know wassup and have had that converstation many, many times. I am just hoping that she will put something on paper for us and that DS will accept it is just for the support and it is up to him who he chooses to tell.

How did it go star??

Well DS wouldn't come with us as he was pretty stressed this morning, so I wasn't sure how the appt was going to go. Ended up a good meeting in the end. Dr and play therapist were there and we had a long chat on how things have been for DS and us as a family.

She wants us to talk again to DS about the benefits of dx and said he wouldn't have to undergo any further assessments as she now has input from the play therapist, ASD outreach so just needs the SALT report (having 1st appt for that next week).

There was a discussion that if DS doesn't agree to consent to dx then she would consult their legal team and see how she could dx without consent from DS. Obviously none of us want that to happen as I really don't want DS to lose trust in us as parents.

Going to talk to him over weekend. But 'he is very strong willed' as Dr stated today, oh yes don't we know it!

So glad it was fairly successful star. I can imagine how difficult it must be.

Dd2(16) really needs assessing for dyslexia but since age 12 has refused to go.

I am hoping that when she goes to 6th form college they will be able to help her as they have a specialist support centre and I know it wont be long before they realise there is a problem

I really hope your Ds can give way on this as I know from my experiences with Dd3 that a dx actually does open doors.

Good luck

Legal team my a If you had bipolar, or asthma, would the dr refuse to diagnose it because the patient didn't like label?

More important is the question of if he is legally competent to make that decision. If he isn't, his views are important but not decisive. And being 13, with an ASD, would affect his ability to weigh things up.

A (competent) under 16 can agree to treatment even if parents disagree. But parents can over-ride refusal of treatment up to 18y. look

Sorry Starfish but I don't understand why they won't give a dx if he doesn't agree. We got a dx last week for ds (similar age) and weren't told anything about having to get his consent. Ds is aware he has difficulties but we have to let him know the dx in the next couple of weeks which will be hard.

Thank you all, this is a saga that has been on going for last 4 years, been awful. DS's ASD has become much more obvious since he turned 11.

Think a lot of what is going on is that we have been handed over to a new doc at CAMHS as old one retired (new doc much better than last one, but this awful back and forth business is rubbish).

She said yesterday that there is much more evidence now of autism but she wants to be completely sure before over turning other docs decision, DS didn't score highly enough on ADOS 4 years ago. It is not just us as parents giving evidence she had play therapist, ASD outreach, support workers all saying DS is ASD, so it is far more complicated than it needs be.

She even told us to apply for DLA and they support application, it's just the dx on paper, that we need to access support, that she won't commit to yet.

Hope the above makes a bit of sense, am worn out by the whole, school, statement, dx saga. Do really appreciate the support x

What a nightmare but I know what you mean. Ds also failed the Ados test and we were given a dx of 'behavioural difficulties'. We were refused a second opinion and our gp said that if we were told he didn't have it then he didn't and why were we pushing for it . We did have a sm for a lot of hours so there was clearly something there. We recently moved counties and I applied for DLA which was agreed first time even without a dx. Then saw a CP who finally gave adx of ASD/PDA last week. He did say though that ds is very complex and could see why the Ados test didn't register everything iykwim. I am just sad that there's been so many school years wasted with very little support as we kept being told he didn't have a dx and it was often implied that it was poor parenting. Hope you get somewhere soon. Take care.

Thank you for posting cilla. Hope that when you tell your DS about DX it goes well. It is very hard.

Am going to try and finish DLA forms off over next few days, had received them but have been putting it off until appt yesterday. Now I need to crack on.

Thanks Maria, will have a look at link. Thanks too leonie, never ending rubbish this end!