Hi. Probably won't remember but I started a thread about my eldest and camhs referral. Thought I'd let you know how it went.
We went to the first appt and the guy straight out said he didn't have a clue how to help.
He presented camhs as a mental illness service not a mental health service and he is unsure how he can help my son as his difficulties are to do with him being autistic. My son is not mentally ill, but his mental health is being affected by his feelings and it has the potential to seriously affect him! He said he doesn't even know how to write the care plan in this case and he's going to seek advice on it.
He acknowledged there is a gap in NHS provision here and it's a disgrace, but there's nothing to be done.
He is going to see him 4 times, to talk about his autism and his feelings, he initially said to get him to "accept" his autism and we said hey hey, nooooo. Not accept. Understand, perhaps, but to accept it as it is right no is to limit him, to suggest there is no chance of developing skills further and we don't agree with that.
So, not too great. Seems to be well, he's autistic, what do you expect, no point trying to do anything, cos he can't change how he feels and acts, let's just work on getting him to feel that he's autistic and that's who he is.
Whereas I think that there should be help out there to help a child to understand themselves as far as they are able, and to learn skills that will help them function in the world. And to understand the rules. Even if they don't understand WHY people do the things they do, they can learn THAT they do them and that it's expected.
Not every child I know, but he can, with the right support and right way of explaining it all to him. That's all we wanted.
So feeling a bit meh about the whole thing.
In other news, I decided to not go to london with them this weekend so I am FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! 