Hi,
I was just wondering who else out there has had negative experiences with CAMHS. eg told our parenting skills aren't up to scratch or we are over exaggerating?
Or even if there are lucky people who have had a good service.
I've been told by my GP that CAMHS are the only service who can help my 14yr old son but I have found them to be hopeless.
I'd be interested to hear other peoples experiences.
Hi Indie Girl- we meet again 
We have had a little experience from CAMHS in our area- not great as we felt they were trying to railroad us into assesments for our son that we didnt feel was necessary, but it's all part of the "system"- which frustrates me a great deal.
We went along with them and attended various appointments lasting up to two hours and got little or nothing out of it. We were reffered to a "behaviour specialist" but all she did was type things into a laptop- 300 questions that we never did to the end of or the results from- what a waste of time and energy! So....No real practical help to speak of, therefore we stopped going.
Its very easy for "professionals" to sit there and criticise parenting skills and preach, but at the end of the day, even with the best will in the world, there is little they seem to be able to do- certainly in our area anyway. Unless you want social workers involved we found it was pretty useless.
What I did in the end was do my own research and try to identify what challenges my son had, look for a trigger (there is always one- sometimes unseen) and deal with it that way.
I also found that as my sons communication got better, and we were able to identify the triggers (many were sensory and due to his lack of speech he couldnt tell us what was wrong so it was very difficult) things did begin to settle down. It feels a bit like micro management ssometimes and it's tough going, but it worked for us.
We are by no means out of the woods yet, and I'm sure we will have much more left to go through, but I did feel that we were very much "left to get on with it" so to speak.
Good luck
Hi Indie Girl- we meet again
We have had a little experience from CAMHS in our area- not great as we felt they were trying to railroad us into assesments for our son that we didnt feel was necessary, but it's all part of the "system"- which frustrates me a great deal.
We went along with them and attended various appointments lasting up to two hours and got little or nothing out of it. We were reffered to a "behaviour specialist" but all she did was type things into a laptop- 300 questions that we never did to the end of or the results from- what a waste of time and energy! So....No real practical help to speak of, therefore we stopped going.
Its very easy for "professionals" to sit there and criticise parenting skills and preach, but at the end of the day, even with the best will in the world, there is little they seem to be able to do- certainly in our area anyway. Unless you want social workers involved we found it was pretty useless.
What I did in the end was do my own research and try to identify what challenges my son had, look for a trigger (there is always one- sometimes unseen) and deal with it that way.
I also found that as my sons communication got better, and we were able to identify the triggers (many were sensory and due to his lack of speech he couldnt tell us what was wrong so it was very difficult) things did begin to settle down. It feels a bit like micro management ssometimes and it's tough going, but it worked for us.
We are by no means out of the woods yet, and I'm sure we will have much more left to go through, but I did feel that we were very much "left to get on with it" so to speak.
Good luck
