That's it got letter for first meeting with Cahms ...{stressed out}

[mysonben]

{{{very worried}}} smiley!!!

On the second of feb. we are invited with DS to Cahms to carry out a 'pre-assessment interview.'
What is that? Anyone has experiemce of this?
What should i expect and how do i prepare for this? Any tips welcome...

I am assuming it is likely yet another review to see if concerns warrant a full asd assessment...
Christ we've had already 3 reviews with paed and the last one consultant paed was there.
They've also reviewed 'DS's case' at City Autism Liaison meeting, before taking decision to refer.
How many loops do we have to jump through...

no idea! Our experience of CAHMS was we saw clinical psych once as part MDT assessment - he came to our house for about 1.5 hours - after 1 hour he agreed DS showed "many ASD traits" and pointed out many we had not even noticed and then proceeded to tell us what to do eg turn taking etc. I nearly begged him to move in for a week - to this day he is the only person who has given us practical advice and seemed to "get" DS and DS only got to see him that once next we saw him was at diagnosis meeting and that was that. with the time and money they have spent on your case you could have had my MDT assessment several times over! We saw paed, SALT and clin psych once each and that was it.

You're so right GrumpyOE, they have spent a great deal of time doing obs and reviews already. So far we have seen EP , paed, consulatnt paed, area senco, and 3 different SALTs !!!
And we are nowhere near finished with the dx path we're only starting!

I have my first appointment on the 21st Jan, i will add a watch to the thread and report back and watch with interest in the meantime.

Sorry not much help to you at the moment.

Our first appointment was a history taking. We went through DS's development and were asked lots of questions about the issues while detailed notes were taken which were then sent to us as a report.

The interviewer also watched DS play and spoke to him.

It was nothing too strenuous but she was a shoe in for the day (a psychotherapist) so referred on for formal assessment to the SCD team.

We have just had our first proper appointment with the psychologist who leads the ASD team today and she has confirmed what we thought and said she could see it clearly. We have done SALT and OT so she is talking about observing in school but possibly not having to do a formal ADOS etc.

You'll get there in the end but it is a slow process.

Thank you.

Debs40, that's what i think we're going to do, 'pre-assessment interview' sounds very much like history taking and questions doesn't it?
I will defo take along my developmental diary i made of B's milestones, ...

Claw3, good luck with your appointment.

Same as Debs described for us. history-taking, observing DS, explanation of the process etc. Then the assessment started.

I just had my ds's first appointment with camhs i sat down couple of nights before and wrote a list it became a 3 a4 page both sides filled in list of things that we had noticed different about Lewis i handed that over to the assessor at start of the meeting ours lasted about a hr..

During the meeting she asked me questions and observed Lewis she tryed telling him a box of tissues was a aeroplane he said no it isnt it a box of tissues in the end she managed to get him to do a aeroplane motion with the tissues but it was very quick and ended fast , she also tryed to get him to make her a sandwich imaginary he did it with bits of paper but when she said lovely sandwich he said it just paper you know LOL!!

She the proceeded to tell me everything we are noticing about Lewis his lack of social skills, etc could be down to global devolpmental delay but she wants to take him on under her team and asked for permission to read his brain scan reports (he has brain damage) paedatric reports from birth, ed phyc reports, statement,send somebody into school to observe him there and to do ados on him next appointment with her is april!!

I felt bit frustrated but know they have to be sure before saying what they think she knows my old paed was the one who put autistic traits on his medical notes and she knows i feel he is somewhere on the spectrum it long waiting game tho xx