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Unable to get a diagnosis

NAS63465

CAMHS have turned down two referrals from my sons doctor and school.

My son is now 11 and about to start mainstream secondary school and I am very worried about how he will fit in.

My son had many difficulties throughout primary school mainly due to social skills. He is a very bright boy and the teachers all cane to a decision that my son doesnt listen to instructions. Many times my son removed himself from the classroom just to get away from the noise. In the end my son was put into a class 3 years below and was called a 'mentor' to the younger children just because the teachers didnt know how to deal with my son. This resulted in my son not doing any class work that he should have been doing leading up to and after SATS. This resulted in my sons final grades being average when I know my sons intelligence is way better but he cant sit down for long periods doing exams! 

This has been a very frustrating time for my son and myself.  Many times I have gone to pick him up from school early as he has been in tears where the teachers have isolated him from the other children and also excluded him for outbursts when he gets frustrated. He wasnt allowed on any school trips either. 

I feel my son has been treated unfairly. My boy is very intelligent and mainly focuses his attentiin to cars and building mecanno sets and computer watching youtubers build cars.. He is extremely happy to be in his own space and hates places like theme parks and fun fairs. He likes technical stuff. 

Food is a big problem, he wont eat most of the dinners I cook fir the family, he woukd rather eat simple things ie bread cheese porridge fish nuggets chips. Nothing with bones and certainly nothing with bits ie onions, vegetables and wont touch fruit except the odd banana. 

My son doesnt like anything too loud ie car radio, tv or anywhere there is noise and lots of people. He can manage events for maybe two hours then he wants to leave.  The beach he can stay all day because he can play in sand. 

Clothing used to be a problem as he complained about irritation. I got to the bottom of that by only using Fairy. 

My son is the youngest of 5 children who have all grown up and left home. I had an emergency code blue caesarian with him and I noticed from a young age that he was different in regards to milestones. He never cried much either hardly at all in fact. 

I am new to this forum and would like to find out how to go about getting a diagnosis for my son? How have other parents managed to get a diagnosis? Who did you speak to and is there a way I could get my son a private diagnosis.  As I said before two referrals have been turned down and one included the school psychiatrists report. The psychiatrist told me she thinks my son is on the spectrum but he would need an official diagnosis to get the education and help he needs.  Any advice please?????

Parents

  • I would try and find out why the referrals are being refused. Was your GP on board with making the referral they made or did you have to push them? If they're in agreement with you, then you could go back to them and ask them to find out a) why the referral's been refused and b) whether they can do anything to push/encourage another one through. Sometimes referrals get refused (even repeatedly) for quite simple issues where the referral just needs tweaking to get accepted (for example, I recall someone on here saying their child's referral had been worded as 'to rule out ASD' and the way CAHMS had interpreted this meant they refused on the basis that they didn't do assessments only for the purposes of exclusion). Did the doctor's and school's referrals include all of the same information or was there some information that didn't overlap? Perhaps it might be helpful to collect it all together and submit it all together so that CAHMS have the whole picture and can see that the info comes from both your GP and school as that will have more weight to it than just coming from one or the other.

    If you wanted to go privately, a google search for child autism diagnosis services in your area should turn up some results. You could also search the NAS directory. You might want to check that any private diagnosis would be accepted by your son's school and your local NHS (I don't think it's actually that common for people to have problems, but still worth double checking).

Reply

  • I would try and find out why the referrals are being refused. Was your GP on board with making the referral they made or did you have to push them? If they're in agreement with you, then you could go back to them and ask them to find out a) why the referral's been refused and b) whether they can do anything to push/encourage another one through. Sometimes referrals get refused (even repeatedly) for quite simple issues where the referral just needs tweaking to get accepted (for example, I recall someone on here saying their child's referral had been worded as 'to rule out ASD' and the way CAHMS had interpreted this meant they refused on the basis that they didn't do assessments only for the purposes of exclusion). Did the doctor's and school's referrals include all of the same information or was there some information that didn't overlap? Perhaps it might be helpful to collect it all together and submit it all together so that CAHMS have the whole picture and can see that the info comes from both your GP and school as that will have more weight to it than just coming from one or the other.

    If you wanted to go privately, a google search for child autism diagnosis services in your area should turn up some results. You could also search the NAS directory. You might want to check that any private diagnosis would be accepted by your son's school and your local NHS (I don't think it's actually that common for people to have problems, but still worth double checking).

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