What do CAMHS do in terms of ASD?

[SophieJenkins]

I've just been told my son's referral has been passed on to our local CAMHS service as he is 8.

I don't know anything about this service and I'm not sure what they do.

I thought someone mentioned they mostly prescribe drugs? As in psychiatry sort of thing. Also found something on the web about it being for mental health problems but I'm not sure if AS is a mental health problem, I haven't ever thought of it as one.

I might have totally misremembered this so please forgive me if so!

Can anyone tell me what the process is likely to be?

Thanks.

Polter - thank you - very very kind and helpful info.

I will go and look it up.

Dd3 was diagnosed by CAMHS it is the most common pathway for children over 5 in my authority!

Some of her assessments had already been requested by the paed before referral to CAMHS, there are 3 tiers in our service the first is like triage, then a MH practioner gathers information and then if they think a diagnosis might be forthcoming they put it forward to the psychiatrist who then decides if further assessment is required.

The whole process from being seen at CAMHS initially took almost a year for us!

Good luck