"Support and treatment for mental health issues of an autistic teen (Coatbridge CAMHS)"

My daughter is now in her mid teens. She is autistic and was diagnosed by the PACteam as having an EDA profile. We have had involvement from the CAMHS early interventions team, SALT,  OT, dietetic services 

and more recently (discharged Oct 2020) a tier 3 clinical psychologist. My daughter has been unable to attend school since dec 2018. She has been in burn out and experiencing extreme anxiety around being in the out side world. She cannot get into the car, she cannot step outside the house, she is unable to be seen by family members on screen, she cannot eat if I am not home. she was experiencing trauma after trauma in being forced to endure situations that caused her extreme anxiety, situations like being appointments, walking into school or being seen by people outside. 

The majority of the staff have done what they can within the boundaries of their role within the current policies. Yet I feel that my daughter has been let down by the services available. She was referred on to tier 3 after she had been unable to engage in sessions with the early intervention team. We were with early intervention for around 3 years. I was told several times that the view and policy within CAMHS was that anxiety issues were all part of autism and therefore were not a mental health issue and not within the scope of the CAMHS services. I have been asking for a trial of anti-anxiety meds for the past 2 years to enable her to step off the wheel of anxiety so that she is able to attend appointments and re-engage with the world.

The PACT team when adding EDA to her profile recommended medication intervention or at least a review by a psychiatrist. My daughter has never been seen by a psychiatrist, she has not been considered for a course of meds even to see if it could help her. We are at the stage, and have been for 2 years that services are not available for her because she cannot attend appointments. The clinical psychologist was incredibly understanding and helpful for me but they never met my daughter and had to discharge her due to her being unable to engage. I asked specifically that it was documented in her notes that she was not choosing to disengage, that she was emotionally unable to attend because of her high levels of anxiety. 

I have felt on many occasions that I was expected to push her into trauma to get her there, or we were seen as not willing to engage with therapy. The blame being firmly placed at my parenting or her up cooperating. Neither of which are justified. It has left me feeling like my daughter has been left to “fix” herself in order to reach a suitable level of good mental health before she can be seen by the psychiatrist. In no other service that I can think of would the most severely effected be denied treatment because if the presentation of their condition. The lack of support and facilitation’s for those unable to leave their safe place without incurring further trauma and pain, is failing my daughter and further impacting on her current and possibly her future mental health.