ADHD/CAMHS and Strengths and Weaknesses Questionnaire

[HeadKnot]

Hi

We are going to CAMHS in a couple of weeks re ds2 (age 8) It is a Choices appt, so just the prelim one. Can anyone advise what to expect?

We have also been given a S&W questionnaire - will this form the basis of whether or not they will help, or is it a bit more sophisticated than that?

We/School are concerned about potential ADHD. BUT ds is so much better than he used to be and his ADHD traits are erractic. His learning is not progressing though, despite being thought of as bright.

Will CAMHS be able to work with all that, or will they just hear that things are better than they were and he's not really that behind at school, so not really being impaired by any difficulties enough for them to be interested?

I am torn between telling them that we are coping with ds pretty much ok at home now, but mainly worried that his attention/impulsiveness/hyperness is really impacting on his learning, or telling them how hard it has been for the last eight years just so they take him on and investigate further.

Am I making any sense?!

I would explain past 8yrs right up to now, it took me years to get my son a dx of adhd, my sons education suffered greatly, he couldn't sit still long enough to write his name, when he did write nobody could read it, eventually he was put on Ritalin, nobody could believe the difference. he could sit and write, we could read it, and he was so happy as he could sit still for 30mins to watch a tv programme, my ds was 14 by the time he got a dx, had been trying to get him dx from age of 2.

I agree with davids. You need to base your answers on his worst day, like the dla form. Because on his worst day he wont be able to learn and could endanger himself (if impulsive).

My Dd3 has Asd and it took a really long time to get Proffs to understand how difficult she finds things. She was diagnosed by CAMHS in the end, ours were good.

Good luck

Thanks both. The appt has been brought forward to tomorrow. Gulp. I think I am going to lay out both the best and the worse that ds can be and see what they say. Thanks for the good wishes.

How did it go?

Aw, thanks for asking. It went fine. The assessment person wrote loads and loads . They are going to send school a form to fill in about DS, with a view to assessing for adhd/anxiety. We just described how ds could be, and they obviously think it is worth pursuing.

Not quite sure how to feel tbh. We have coped with ds till now, we aren't in crisis. The reason we are asking for help is because we think his difficulties are really impacting on his learning. However, it feels like we are really laying ourselves open for professionals to peer in to our lives, and it doesn't feel comfortable!

I guess we have to just get over ourselves and see wher the process take us.

If anyone has any thoughts on adhd vs anxiety, I'd love to hear them though .

Thank you for asking - that was very kind