Referals to CAHMS did you get an 'acceptance' letter or something???

[mysonben]

Hi, on the 17 th of november we had our 3rd paed review, it was finally agreed by both comm. paed and senior paed (who was also there this time) that DS would be refered to Cahms for what they called a full 'autistic assesment'.
We were told by senior paed to expect a 3 month waiting time before our local city Cahms would see us.
Fine, i suppose 3 months waiting is 'reasonable'...but we haven't so far received any letter from neither paed confirming their decision to refer on to Cahms.
Usually within 2-3 weeks after a paed appointment we used to get a report stating the issues, the plan of actions,...
But nothing this time!

I was expecting to receive at least a letter to confirm decision ,...
shall i ring paed's office to quiery? or is it usual standard procedure not to receive any confirmation?
Maybe all we'll get is a letter from Cahms in a couple of months when it's time for first appointment?
Did any of you get a letter of confirmation for referal prior to actual first appointment with Cahms?

Thanks.

each area has their own rules and admin system, so I would phone up CAMHS to query. Sometimes letters can take a long time to be typed if there's a typing back log.

I didn't get letter of comfirmation from CAMHS, just the appointment letter a few weeks before the appointment. But I did get a copy of the paed's detailed referral letter.
I would ring CAMHS and just check you're on the list and maybe even say you'd be happy to take any cancellation slots. May be quicker then.

Yes that's it Givemesleep, i was expecting to get a letter from paed re:the referal. But that hasn't come ...yet.

I will ring both paed and Cahms i think.

When i'm not chasing up appointments then i'm chasing up reports or letters!
Its' endless...this system is the pits !

I would call as our local CAMHS (Herts) do not do ASD assessments at all, and we wasted 7 weeks as GP sent it to CAMHS

True some cahms teams don't actually do asd assesments, but i know our local one does, i know someone whose gran-dd was assessed there and dx with AS. I hve also checked out their webpage and they give (a tiny) bit of info about the asd assesments they do.

Everything is just so infuriatingly longggg...

Just had paed's secretary on the phone, and apparently a letter concerning the review and the decision to refer was sent to us and other agencies earlier this month... err didn't get mine!
They'll be sending us a copy.

Our first CAHMS experience was part of the multidisciplinary diagnosis procedure with DS1 (they didn't see DS2) and we simply got appointments. We've been re-referred, since DS1's ahving such a hard time and instead of any letter, we found out we were near the top of the waiting list by getting a call at 5pm one day asking is if we could make it to a cancellation the next morning. Well no, but thanks for letting us know we're on your list in the first place!

Just to add that DS1's CAHMS referrals were/are for his ADHD rather than his autism. That's the aspect our local CAHMS deals with. The autism is through the community paediatrician, here and she coordinates other services in the parts they play.

We got an appointment several months after referral but it was a background taking exercise with a psychotherapist.

We have now been on the waiting list since August. I understand it is likely to take another year before we get the ASD assessment. They do about 24 a year.

These things seem to take a very long time and I don't know why these services say they can undertake these assessments when they clearly have not got the resources to manage the process. It wouldn't happen in other hospital depts.

Yes, Debs40, i recall your previous pots about the issues you had with your local cahms.
So you are still sticking with them after all? Or are you waiting for an out of area referal? (i remember you mentioning the possibilty a while back).

It's all so disheartening, nebulous and so long winded this dx assesment process isn't it?

It's terrible mysonben. I'm trying to locate someone, anyone reasonably near who looks like they know what they're doing and is on the choose and book system. It's not easy!

I can imagine... Nothing ever goes smoothly and quickly!!!
Good luck nevertheless.