"Experience with CAMHS appointment"

Our daughter has autism and currently is on CAMHS waiting list . We were sent a Near Me  appointment with a Psychologist ,and another clinician  to discuss attending a course to help manage our daughter's anxiety . Both my husband and I made a special effort to be at the appointment together (the appointment had been sent with only a few days notice and I had to reschedule several work meetings in order to be able to attend).

However ,no one "turned up "at the arranged time. we phoned CAMHS to find out what was happening and got a phone call from the psychologist half an hour later. They explained that a decision had been made to cancel all the appointments with families related to discussing the course as the letters had gone out late ( no one had  informed us that the appointment had been cancelled ) .

 I was feeling quite stressed and explained that we had to make  a special effort to come to the appointment together . Also our daughter has misophonia and does not tolerate us speaking in the house  and we had arranged to have the meeting in our summerhouse in the garden and got a friend to be with the children  .

The Psychologist must have picked up on the stress aspect . She offered to have the appointment later the same morning as this was easiest for us .

 We really just wanted to thank her for being so  flexible !!

life with two autistic children is stressful enough without also having to stress about appointments being rescheduled .

 My husband in particular found the consultation very helpful and it was really important for me for both of us to be there but had the appointment been moved to another day I would have probably had to attend on my own. I hope this feedback helps to see our perspective. 

Perhaps a bit more thought could be put into sending out appointment letters well ahead of time to avoid this happening again in future .

 It was all quite stressful but ok in the end!