"Failure of CAMHS to treat autistic and severely mentally ill family member"

A family member who I am supporting developed CPTSD and psychosis. They were referred to CAMHS who rejected them twice, mainly because the family member failed to give adequate information. CAMHS should have agreed to meet with them to find out more. The worst issue was when the family member was diagnosed privately with psychosis and was again referred to CAMHS. CAMHS failed to treat the referral as urgent despite the family member's suicidal feelings and only did so when I rang them and insisted upon them treating it as such, also explaining about the CPTSD.

This is unacceptable as not all young people have an adult to advocate for them. The family member and I then met with CAMHS. However, they discharged them immediately because the family member failed to cooperate with CAMHS, telling them to get an autism diagnosis. The autism diagnosis was correct, however CAMHS seemed to think this diagnosis would be enough to heal a someone with serious mental health issues.

In the meeting we explained the CPTSD at length, but because the family member refused to explain the trauma (a perfectly natural response because doing so would instantly trigger them), they ignored it. Furthermore, the family member struggled with the open questions asked by the CAMHS staff because of their autism, and so I helped to prompt them in explain the CPTSD. CAMHS, despite recognising the autism - and so in theory recognising the difficulty of open questions and that my family member would not cooperate like a neuro typical person - seemed to think that their responses suggested they were pretending to have CPTSD because they needed external prompts. This is totally unacceptable and discriminatory.

Furthermore, CAMHS dismissed the diagnosis of psychosis, stating that they could not see them hallucinating obviously in the meeting. This is ridiculous. Hallucinations may be infrequent but this does not mean psychosis is not present. If someone hallucinates once a day, what are the chances that this occurs within a one hour meeting? It is also ridiculous to rely on being able to see the person hallucinating, particularly for an autistic young person who is used to constant masking and will not react like neuro typical people. I was deeply frustrated and angry with the dismissal, which forced my family into thousands of pounds of private treatment. The consistent discrimination and attempts to discredit my family member's truthfulness and serious mental health problems are totally unacceptable.