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CAMHS Psychiatric consultant's referral to paediatrics turned down??

Huckleberry

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. 

Parents

  • Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in such detail.  I can't believe the journey you've had. I'll definitely get that book and brush up my knowledge. 

    We live in a very rural area, so not found a group yet though someone I know has been through it and is being a great support.  It's shown me that the schools are more of an influence than they really should be as her support has come from her school (big). Our school is very good in many ways but as it's so small (70 pupils, 10 in his class and the same teacher for 2 school years, which is why it's been very stable for him) my friend says it's been hidden because they have the capacity to manage his behaviour rather then helping him learning stratagies to manage his feelings himself. I thought that was an astute observation. Much as I love the school I feel very let down by them in their lack of support with ed psyche. 

    I'm a therapist, I do lots of work on oxytocin and teach mindfulness so I'm teaching him some basic mindfulness techniques which are starting to help I think with some situations.  I work with anxiety in adults, and though I've not done much work in early pre teen, instinct and experience tells me a huge difference can be made in teaching certain techniques early on. I definitely need to learn more as I suspect I'm unwittingly working with quite a few undiagnosed aspies! 

    Thank you so much again. 

Reply

  • Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in such detail.  I can't believe the journey you've had. I'll definitely get that book and brush up my knowledge. 

    We live in a very rural area, so not found a group yet though someone I know has been through it and is being a great support.  It's shown me that the schools are more of an influence than they really should be as her support has come from her school (big). Our school is very good in many ways but as it's so small (70 pupils, 10 in his class and the same teacher for 2 school years, which is why it's been very stable for him) my friend says it's been hidden because they have the capacity to manage his behaviour rather then helping him learning stratagies to manage his feelings himself. I thought that was an astute observation. Much as I love the school I feel very let down by them in their lack of support with ed psyche. 

    I'm a therapist, I do lots of work on oxytocin and teach mindfulness so I'm teaching him some basic mindfulness techniques which are starting to help I think with some situations.  I work with anxiety in adults, and though I've not done much work in early pre teen, instinct and experience tells me a huge difference can be made in teaching certain techniques early on. I definitely need to learn more as I suspect I'm unwittingly working with quite a few undiagnosed aspies! 

    Thank you so much again. 

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