CAMHS anyone been seen by them?

[claw3]

Have just received news that my CAMHS referral has been accepted and im on the waiting list. I have pressed for referral, as i want a referral to a feeding clinic and apparently only CAMHS can refer.

Does anyone have any experience of them, what can i expect from them? (other than referral that i am after)

bumping for you... (we have only just been told that ds is going to be refered to camhs so no experience of them)
But i have read here on MN that sometimes they are helpful and sometimes they are s..t, depending where you live.

I'm afraid it was the latter for me. We went a few years ago now and I found them very patronising. They seemed to be more interested in my childhood, and I left there very tearful. Although I do know others who found them helpful.

Mmmm, it is called 'Child and Family services' where I live and initially it all seemed promising. Now, not so sure. They seem a little out of their depth, very disorganised and reluctant to provide basic information.

However, after complaining, I have a meeting with the head of service tomorrow. I shall let you know if that restores my faith!!

Mysonben, thank you.

Macwozzy, thats the impression i got from TAMHS when they came into school to see ds (a branch of CAMHS that come into schools) they seemed more concerned with how you parent your child. All they kept asking was 'what do you do when ds does this', i felt the school had called on them because they felt ds's problems could be due to dubious parenting skills and no discipline.

I felt TAMHS were there to referee between myself and the school, as to who was using the best strategies for dealing with ds's behaviour. I suppose it did work out ok, as TAMHS did ask the school to implement some of my strategies ie visual aids. But kinda of felt like my sanity for suggesting visual aids was in question!

I was hoping that CAMHS might be different, still i suppose i will have to wait and see.

Debs - Well TAMHS seems to be aimed more at 'dysfunctional' families, rather than at families with 'special needs'. I felt she was assessing my mental state, I really did feel like i was trial!

I was hoping CAMHS wasnt the same.

We went to CAMHS to try and get strategies in order to stop my ds from hitting other children at school. He mostly did this when frustrated, however CAMHS were asking all sorts of questions like 'had I been bullied at school' etc. I just could not understand the connection at all.

hi i take my ds to camhs ,they have been pretty good they have never asked me about my childhood thank god!

I have to say I was never asked any personal questions about myself nor was it ever suggested that 'parenting' was an issue. I was worried about this but, in fact, at our first appointment I was complimented at how well we had accomdated all DS's needs with 'sensitive parenting'.

I think it depends on the CAMHS and the nature of the referral. We had gone through several 'gateways' to get to CAMHS ASD team and so there was an acceptance that ASD issues exist. We have never felt like we have to 'prove' it to anyone. I think it has been quite obvious when experienced staff have met DS.

My issue with them is that their service is not user friendly, it is opaque and not always competent - messages don't get passed on, procedures are not explained etc

TAMHS did compliment me on that i seem to have a very good grasp on ds's problems and good strategies in place to deal with them.

But i felt that i had to 'prove' myself first ie 'what do you do when ds does this' constantly.

Perhaps it was the schools 'ds sulks and can be difficult' approach, rather than ds doesnt sulk he avoids that made me feel defensive.

TAMHS had already arrived at the school, when i arrived and were sat in the room with ds's learning mentor, they had obvious already had a chat and i felt the school had almost told her that ds doesnt have any problems, other than being a spoilt brat, its his over anxious mother thats the problem kinda thing!

As i described what kind of problems ds experiences, all TAMHS kept asking was 'how do you deal with that' as if she was trying to decide if the school were right! i explained how i dealt with it, she felt i was dealing with it in the right way, so perhaps she was just trying to establish whether i needed strategies. The learning mentor sat there rolling her eyes and clock watching!

Perhaps it was the school, rather than TAMHS who were at fault.

I think seeing someone away from the dysfunctional school dynamic will probably help!!

LOL Debs

I felt the school had set TAMHS on me to put me straight about a few things!

Learning Mentor made comments such as ds refusing to sit on the carpet 'dont you feel ds acts like that to get his own way' Then TAMHS would ask me 'how do you deal with this when he refuses to do what you ask him at home'

Luckily i was wearing my bullet proof vest and tin hat.

Aaarrrrggghh .... you poor thing. You've really had a tough time with this school business

ds was assessed and given a dx by cahms and their autism diagnosis team.
It was a really postive experience for us actually. They made me feel really good about my parenting...that i had managed well with ds up to that point without any extra help.
Guess like most things it depends who you get.

Glad to hear some have had positive experiences.

Troutpout, I didnt realise they could give dx's, that is good to know. I will certainly ask about their autism team.

Thats the problem for me with CAMHS, im unsure of what their role is.

I work in CAMHS. Although I don't work for the autism team I've done quite a few ASD specific assessments, also I've had suspicions about "difficult" children maybe having intrinsic difficulties rather than it being parenting and have referred them to the autism team.

Most children when they get assessed by the autism team will have a pretty strong flavour of ASD as they have to have had a paed and SALT assessment first. The ASD specific assessment takes the form of a very detailed set of questions (takes me 3 hrs, 3 appoitments) with the parents. Also do a school obs and meet with teachers and an ADOS. Then discuss dx and interventions with parents.

However for more generic behavioural difficulties the assessment may well cover issues such as parenting and family dynamics/relationships/history. It's v comprehensive and informs the outcome of the assessment. Saying that it's not standard to ask parents about their childhoods, but it often comes up during the assessment. We also do genograms to look at relationships.

Re behaviour diffs, the NICE guidelines recommend referral to a parenting group which is what we do as a first line intervention if intrinsic difficulties aren't suspected. Sometime families will have family therapy/parent child game/individual 1:1 work.

Personally I do do some behavioural work but my specialism is individual work with adolescents with disorders such as depression/psychosis/eating disoreders.

Hope this helps but obv not all camhs are the same.

Thank you very much minx, that was very helpful and explains a lot about my experience with TAMHS and school, makes perfect sense now.

By my second appointment with TAMHS and school, SALT report was available and highlighted her concerns about ds and his processing difficulties etc and referral for social and communication disorder assessment. TAMHS involvement stopped and CAMHS referral was accepted and my suggestions about visual aids was accepted by the school.

There was i thinking i passed the Munchausen by proxy syndrome test on my own merits and it was the SALT report!

The CAMHS psychiatrist J has is absolutely wonderful and I find her advice and support more valuable than anyone else's. However, others have had crap experiences with them. It does seem to depend on who you get.

agree with it must depend on who you get as to what you get.. personally I love my CAMHS team. I want to bring them home and feed them cake, and I want to thank them all the time.
Out of everything these were the people who helped.
We had an intial assesment, and were straight away put on to the clinical pyschologist who deals with ASD etc. Out appoinments were whizzed through. They have helped out my visiting school, not only making an assesment there but talking to those involved with ds. The work they have done with ds has been incredible.. and I have lots more parent tools to use now. I never feel I failed in anyway.

blimey seriously I could praise them up no end.
DS has come on leaps and bounds..

I hope for a good team for you x

Blimey.... where are you BCNS? I might get a referral there!

Dh has taken dd1 to local Camhs for an appt about her behaviour this pm. (I am having a break as I did the botox and ga - with 5 hour wait, no food hospital and drink, aaarrrggh! - on Tuesday!) We are hoping for some advice re impulsive behaviour.

Such a relief to hear of people having a good experience, thanks.

Once we got to see the child and family service it has been helpful - mostly to me as the main carer (ds was nearly 8 in sn asd aware school by then). Ds was immediatly recommended for an autism Dx after our first long appointment with a whole gang of professionals. They praised our parenting and appologised to us for previous mistakes ( being turned away x2, getting lost in the system change - it took nearly 4 years to get to that day!
The physchologist has been helpful not just in the important behavioural stratagies but in all sorts of ways not least getting onto ss -(who had ignored all pleas for help from me for years - we are now approved for respite) and helping get continance support. We had found are own way on many things by then of course but I can see that if we had had support and the Dx from C&F when ds was 4 or 5 life would have been much smoother for us all!!
I hope it goes well for you Claw.

I have nothing but praise for CAMHS. They have really helped and our whole family and home has changed since my son was put on Methyphenidate for ADHD prescribed by CAMHS. Even though my sons doctor is only there once a week, she is brilliant and i dont know what i would have done without her. But I have also heard some bad reports so not sure if i am just one of the lucky ones

Debs , I'm in the south west

From what I have read on here and heard from others it is a real lottery as to who you get.