Unhelpful and unsupportive
Our GP referred my daughter to CAMHS following a prolonged period of anxiety and self harming. We were told, over the phone, that the self harming was not serious enough to warrant support and that we should try accessing free support from a local charity for young carers. We then paid for our child to have private therapy for her anxiety. The therapist helped enormously, but recommend that our daughter be assessed for autism as she felt this was the route cause of her anxiety. The GP agreed and referred her to CAMHS for an assessment. This was rejected by CAMHS as her school did not see evidence of autism - against NICE guidelines recommendations on autism assessment. We are now awaiting a private assessment, but CAMHS would not recommend any private services or confirm whether they would offer any support based on the finding of this assessment. The team have been very unhelpful and unsupportive throughout this whole process and I am appalled that they are now claiming that their autism assessment process is much improved in the local press.