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Definitely CAMHS are brilliant my son was similar to yours at 10 & saw a primary counsellor then in 2nd year he had a meltdown with anxiety & between my GO & the school counsellor (she was Brilliant) he was see by CAMHS within 2 weeks. Jigsaw is another brilliant service but I think the child has to be 12 to be seen. DS also had 6 free sessions with them he found it brilliant.

Penny wrote:Great to hear Hen.

We were told at our 1st appointment that they wouldn't have seen DS only that he has other issues. He wasn't classed anywhere near bad enough for CAMHS

Thanks Penny, it may be the case that we were very lucky and that it is a post code lottery. My DD has no other issues and it was solely an anxiety issue. It does appear that anxiety among preteens and young teens has reached epidemic levels throughout the country. I really feel more coping strategies and Mindfulness or mental health care should be taught as part of the primary curriculum.

Ds got seen by primary care phycology for his anxiety. Couldn't fault them and if there are any problems I can call.

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It is listed on their services but it depends how stretched your local CAMHS is. Ours is completely over stretched and they deal with the most urgent cases and then what they class as serious.

It is definitely worth asking for a referral but with a waiting list of a year in some places I would seek private help as a year is far too long to have to wait to be seen.

CAHM's is a cross functional team which includes a psychologist, OT, SLT, psychiatrist and nurse. They do treat children for anxiety, it's listed on their home page as one of their services.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/ ... ces/camhs/

It is the correct place for a child to be referred and underlying conditions can manifest as anxiety or cause anxiety. Either way it would be much better to seek professional support and not need it then to ignore the signs the teacher is seeing and perhaps have bigger issues long term.

Like every other service, they are under resourced but that is not your problem. You are right to talk to your GP and seek their advice as well.

Great to hear Hen.

We were told at our 1st appointment that they wouldn't have seen DS only that he has other issues. He wasn't classed anywhere near bad enough for CAMHS

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My DD has been attending CAMHS for anxiety for the last 8 months and will soon be discharged. The service has been excellent and has really given her the skills to deal with her anxiety (which has thankfully settled) and adolescence in general. I have a niece attending CAMHS in a different area of the country and in both my experiences the children were seen quite quickly after a Doctors referral. If I can be of any help, with anything specific don't hesitate to PM me.

CAMHS won't see him for anxiety unless it is extremely severe and there are other issues. DS was referred for the same thing and the response letter advised that they were not the place for him and also recommended psychologist which is what I thought he needed anyway.

Dd is in first year. I met with the home school liaison officer as she was a bit worried about Dd not settling and few other school related things. She mentioned a referral to cahms through our GP, said she would give me a letter for our GP. As it happened I was chatting to a.social worker the same day and was telling her what the school had advised. She asked my thoughts and how dd was at home etc. She said it sounded more psychological than cahms related. Said cahms would meet DD once and discharge her in her opinion and she recommended psychologist. I met with my GP and explained what school said and social worked said and also my own concerns (tries too hard to be everyone's friend, overly friendly, she's so polite and friendly though,not mixing well, extremely immature, no self confidence, won't try or attempt tasks if she thinks she can't do it, lacks focus to name but a few) GP agreed with social worker and said psychologist seems to be the right route. That was last November, got two forms to complete since and told she was now on waiting list. GP thought she would have app around end of feb so hoping it won't be too long more of a wait.
I hope you get sorted with ur DS

As a teacher I don't suggest to parents to refer a child without getting a second opinion from a Resource / Learning Support teacher. It is such as sensitive area I always make sure I am 100% correct that there appears to be an issue. I would take the teachers advice on board and ask your GP to contact CAHM's. As a previous poster said if your child does not need support they won't keep him under their care in CAHM's. They could however give him strategies to support his anxiety and it would be of benefit to try to get these supports in place before he starts secondary school.

Losing (or not being the best) is a really difficult for some children especially those who set high standards for themselves so he is not unusual finding it hard. It's great that he calms down so quickly but it would be wonderful for him if he could identify the triggers for these incidents and try to prevent them from occurring and CAHM's could help with this.

I would look at trying play therapy or something similar first. It is very hard to get CAMHS to see you and where we live the waiting time is 12 months. Go and see your gp and talk to them. They can refer you and if CAMHS feel he's not 'bad' enough they will tell you within weeks.

We finally got an appointment with CAMHS and I was actually shocked at what they consider bad enough to be seen. Only that my DS has a few issues they wouldn't see him for anxiety alone. They felt his anxiety wasn't severe enough - I beg to differ but at least they are seeing him now. They wouldn't see us 1st time he was referred.

Both my boys have found play therapy brilliant and I would highly recommend it.

If they don’t deem him suitable they just reject the referral in my experience. I had to go the private route with dd while waiting for an appt. with CAHMS and I got an appt after about 4 months and I had a very persistent gp helping me. Edited to say I would recommend the psychologist we went to if you want to PM we got good results with dd during a very difficult time. Actually I was very disappointed with CAHMS in comparison.

I have a little experience here and am trying to get CAMHS to take us on just now, having ended up going the private route first. Anyway if it’s been flagged to you, I’d definitely pursue the referral. If you can see that it’s affecting your sons happiness, then it’s good to look into it. We went to two different private psychologists while we were figuring things out but it didn’t add anything much, so I’d be slow to go that route. But that’s just my experience, probably others will have different takes on it.

Your GP will probably make the referral but the waiting lists are very long. I would ask for a referral and add that the teacher has also recommended it but in the meantime if you can afford private counselling maybe your GP can recommend someone.

There are a lot of things available like drama therapy and play therapy and music therapy but most are quite expensive and you don't really know until you've tried them how effective they will be.

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