This week 10 parent carer ‘reps’ from WPCF met with senior leaders from the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust‘s CAMHS service and mental health commissioners from Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. It was the start of a project called
‘Neurodivergent Friendly CAMHS.’ It was a brutal meeting, which one of our reps described as “gut-wrenching.” Our reps bravely shared their experiences of trying to get CAMHS support for their autistic children and the serious impact “the battle” and “the delays” had on the whole family. Themes discussed included: inequality of access, parent blaming, inappropriate interventions, issues with transitions to adult services and a lack of neurodivergent training. Our work on this project will continue, but we would greatly value hearing from other Worcestershire parent carers with experience of accessing or trying to access CAMHS for their neurodivergent child. Please consider adding your experiences to our short Padlet.
