How long did you have to wait to hear if your CAMHS referal was accepted?

[mysonben]

Hi,
Just wondering how long we should expect to wait to find out if CAMHS will assess my DS.

We had the 2nd appointment with his paed back on the 15th of august.
She said she will refer him to CAMHS at their next monthly meeting , which was the 8th of september.
Then on her following report it says she will contact us regarding the outcome of the referal.

So it's been 9 days since her meeting with CAMHS and we haven't hear nothing yet (maybe i'm too impatient but i want to know...
We still don't know if CAMHS have agreed or not to put him on their waiting list for assessment.

How long shall i leave it before contacting the paed to ask what's happening?
What would be the best contact method :phone, email, letter?

Thanks for replies.

waiting times can be fairly long ime (I believe we are in the same area)

I would give it another couple of weeks and then ring the paed's secretary to ask her to find out if a referral has been made

then you may have to wait for an actual appointment, but at least you will know that things are moving

Thanks Cory.

Like you say "at least we'll know that things are moving"
Not knowing is just stressful.
And it's not garanteed that CAMHS will have agreed to the paed referal of DS.

The ed psych referred my son to CAMHS in Feb our appointment was in May but this was just to double check we were being referred to the right place and to tell them what we wanted them to do for us

We had another appointment in Aug to meet our official point of contact.

On Sept 11th ds did the ADOS and now we are biting our nails waiting for the results.

Making things straightforward isn't their strong point!

Thanks Frazzledazzle,
i hope it all goes well in the end whatever the outcome.

Thanks

hi my sonben

We were referred after our consultant Paed appointment in June. The community paed then wrote to them asking them to see us for advice about school issues in July and we got an appointment in August.

This turned out to be a basic background history taking and a further referral on to the social and communication disorders group.

From chasing them, I understand that this an appointment for assessment is likely to take about 6-8 months.

Trying to get information from them is like trying to get blood from a stone. I wrote to the consultants involved a month or so ago, trying to be constructive, but trying to highlight how opaque and confusing the whole process can be for parents.

I think this is particularly shocking when you consider these people deal with mental health!!

I think it is a general issue I will take up with my MP at some point because the assessment process and provision available seems to vary so widely from area to area and I've yet to receive a good explanation from anyone about why the process is so secretive!!

It took about 3 weeks for our referral (from SALT & school) to CAMHS for them to write & tell us that they would not assess.

Thank you Debs40 and Whatreally for your replies.

That is what i'm really scared of...been refused an assessment.

Just got a letter from DS's paed.
It says it was agreed at the CALM (city autism liaison meeting), that DS presents with autistic features and consequently he is been refered to the consultant paed. to be reviwed and for her opinion to refer him to CAMHS.

What's it all about? I don't get it, i thought his paed was going to refer him to CAMHS.
Now we have to see another paed???

God knows. DS was referred to CAHMS by my GP but CAHMS refused to see DS because he was a pre-schooler and they only saw kids of school age. He was referred onto the Child Development Centre where we saw a right old battleaxe paed who specialises in children of preschool age. She was not much help at all so am holding out for DS to start school and if problems persist we will go back to hosp and hopefully get to see CAHMS this time.

Its such a minefield isn't it? Big hugs, x

How come my 'right old battleaxe' isn't struck out sorry about that!

This is really annoying for you!!

Do you know what type of paed have you seen so far?

The process where I live is to see the community paediatrician first. She can then review the child or automatically refer on to the consultant paed at the hospital who specialises in ASD. He is the gateway to CAMHs.

Once he refers, CAMHS take the referral but whether it goes on from there is up to them.

This is what I have gathered. It has not been explained to me. As I have said, these services seem to operate in a very opaque way for no good reason. Why not be clear about the process?

I would ring the paed's office and ask them to clarify what is going on.

I think what you have described Debs40, is what is happening.

I'm not sure what DS's paed is, well it says next to her name : Speciality Community Paediatrician.
So i assumed she is a community paed then.

Yes Barmmy it is a minefield, no wonder it takes months or years to get formal dx, with all these hoops we have to jump through.

Got to dash to get ready for work...be back later.

Hiya

That is what it is then. She is the community paed.

She refers on to the Consultant paed and he or she can refer directly on to CAMHS.

What a nightmare - why don't they tell you this????

Be warned as well that the initial appointment with CAMHS turned out to be a 'gateway' one for us with a woman deciding whether it should be further referred on to the Social and Communications Order Group.

I'd ask about that up front!

How many 'initial' review do we have to go through before anything concrete id done!!!
It's the pits literaly.
Thanks for the warning Debs40.