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Health services for a child

Posted By Project Lead

"Health services for a child"

About: Fife Community Services / Childrens and Adolescence Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

(as a volunteer/advocate),

I work for ENABLE Scotland and I am writing this on behalf of and with the consent of parents I am supporting who has a daughter approaching 10. They have received support from CAMHS in the past but were then discharged. CAMHS asked the parents to complete the Fife Neurodevelopmental form. In 2020 the school supported a referral to Paediatrics. The referral was rejected on the grounds they needed to go back to CAMHS and get support through the Family Support Service.

The school then referred via AAP in October, with support from Educational Psychology, but it was rejected yet again saying they needed a psychologists report (but due to lockdown the Educational Psychologist has been unable to observe) and that they also needed a health professional recommendation.

In the meantime the child's mental well being has deteriorated significantly.

She has started to display self destructive and distressing behaviours which is causing her harm.   At this point in Dec they went back to the GP and the school and demanded help.  They specifically asked the GP for a paediatric referral and met with the school, who put any referral on hold due to the GP referring the child for assessment, but it turns out they were referred back to CAMHS.

The child has been receiving support through DAPL however this is due to end in the near future.

The parents do not know where to turn in order to get appropriate support for their child and in the meantime the child is becoming more distressed. Both the parents and the school have reported that the child  is now experiencing an entourage of verbal and body tics, which are leaving her wiped out and sore

 The school has also stated that the child is showing daily aggression towards her peers which she never did previously. The child is desperately trying to mask behaviours.

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Responses

Response from Lee Cowie, Clinical Service Manager, CAMHS, Health & Social Care Partnership 2 years ago
Lee Cowie
Clinical Service Manager, CAMHS,
Health & Social Care Partnership

Manage Childrens Mental Health services

Submitted on 30/04/2021 at 14:45
Published on Care Opinion at 16:44

Dear Colleague,

Thank you for sharing the issues that your clients have experienced whilst trying to access support for their daughter. As Clinical Service Manager for CAMHS I would like to apologise for the difficulties they have encountered.

As you will be aware CAMHS is a service for children and young people who are experiencing complex and severe mental health issues however the service is also part of the wider network of services that are intended to meet the holistic needs of children and young people. Across this network we are very aware of the difficulties that families can encounter whilst trying to get the right support and work is ongoing both within health and with our partners in education to try and streamline the pathways to care. This includes work around our Autism Assessment Pathway and Our Minds Matter which is Fife's multi-agency framework for children's emotional wellbeing.

Whilst Covid-19 and the associated restrictions have made accessing services slightly more complicated, what you have described is clearly leading to further distress for this family and their daughter.

From a CAMHS perspective, our Primary Mental Health Workers have established a professional consultation service, whereby professionals involved with children who have a concern over their mental health can contact them to discuss where would be the most appropriate service to direct a referral to. In the circumstances you have described the Primary Mental Health Workers will also be able to recommend whether a re-referral back to CAMHS would be appropriate at this time or suggest how to re-establish the referral processes that have already been instigated to other service providers. The Primary Mental Health Worker Professionals Consultation Service can be accessed on Tel: 01334 696019.

In addition to this, the contact details and the function of the wider network of service providers can be accessed via the CAMHS website at: https://www.nhsfife.org/services/services-and-departments/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-service-camhs/choosing-the-right-support/

Fife CAMHS has also developed an on-line resource to provide help and practical advice for supporting children and young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing which can be accessed at: handsonscotland.co.uk

Again, I apologise for the difficulty in accessing services that this family have experienced however I hope that some of these resources and contact points may be able to assist in ensuring the right care is achieved.

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