My son, who has just turned 11, saw a consultant at CAMHS for a 90 minute appointment after he wrote " I'm useless and deserve to die" on the board at school ( the appointment came withingn a week) He observed my son, took a history, spoke to my son, and we were told that he needed to have a formal assessment with community paediatrics, and was being referred for ASD. He basically told us to let the school know they would have to start thinking about putting support measures in place and sent me a list of ASD resources including this site.
Its no surprise, we've known for a long time but made the, perhaps wrong decision, not to have him assessed earlier. We've followed routines, stratagies etc at home, and he's in a very small stable nurturing school. Over the past year he's deteriorated and these last few weeks he has been very distressed, hitting his head much harder, and to the point where there was a bump, he has not taken off the earmuffs he was given for Christmas as they are so soothing. We've managed with some interventions ourselves up until a couple of years ago, but are increasingly concerned about school changes this year and adolescence, which we think is what may be triggering the shift. This Christmas close to tears, we kept saying we'll get help soon, it's ok we'll get help soon.
Today I opened a letter saying he had been turned down by the community paediatric service as he did not fit their/CAMHS referral criteria.....it was CAMHS consultant who, after discussing my son's case with his team, referred him. The letter was not signed, sent from customer care and said my consultant would have more details.
Having rung today, he doesn't know why, he was shocked and looking into it. They haven't even received the school questionnaire so it's not that.
We are at a loss, exhausted, frightened for our son and are at breaking point. Since seeing the consultant I did lots of research and it's definitely genetic, my grandmother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and severe depression, but her profile fits Aspergers. I'd never realised that aspies were sometimes misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.
Does anyone know why this might be? Is it his age? How can this happen within CAMHS, that a consultant refers to their own paediatric team and the referral is turned down?
Thank you for reading.