Care Opinion

She was always on our team.

Posted By thubanyr83

"She was always on our team."

About: Community Mental Health Services / CAMHS (Child & Adolescent MH service) Stirling

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter was referred to CAMHS for neurodevelopment assessment in October 2020. It was a very long, hard wait to be seen with lots of ups and downs along the way. 

We were finally seen in August 2022 and she was quickly diagnosed with autism. Once the diagnosis was made, lots of support and services became available to us. 

We were quickly seen by Sarah (OT) and my daughter had a good bond with her straight away. Sarah made us aware of sensory processing problems and how my daughter was struggling to deal with these. This was something I had little knowledge in and Sarah was able to help and guide us through what this meant. 

I had a suspicion that my daughter struggled with balance and coordination because she was unable to do some basic things such as using cutlery or ride a bike. Sarah did assessments and confirmed that she probably does have DCD/Dyspraxia. 

The biggest impact that Sarah had was that she was always on our team. She attended TAC meetings and sent reports to the school to make them aware of how they could make my daughter more comfortable. 

Up until this, I had teachers and other educational staff telling me that our issues were down to bad parenting, trauma or safe guarding. Sarah was able to tell the “experts” that all our problems came down to sensory processing, DCD or autism. 

We are now 7 months past her diagnosis and she is back to school full time. She is medicated to ease her anxiety and knows how to communicate her sensory feelings to me. 

We have attended the forest group and have developed a stronger bond. She has also asked if she can learn how to ride a bike! 

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Responses

Response from Lesley Dunabie, Department Manager, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre, NHS Forth Valley nearly 2 years ago
Lesley Dunabie
Department Manager, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre,
NHS Forth Valley

Submitted on 20/06/2023 at 11:53
Published on Care Opinion at 12:18

Dear thubanyr83

Thank you very much for taking the time to post your feedback regarding your experience of Forth Valley Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

We are sorry to hear of your long wait for our service. I know that our waiting times remain too lengthy and we are working hard to reduce these using various work force strategies and service improvement plans. The service and the families who use FV CAMHS are beginning to see some improvements; there is still lots to be done.

I am delighted to hear about the experience you had with Sarah and our Occupational Therapy team. It is extremely important for us to hear that the wrap around service such as: attendance at TACS, individual sessions and community sessions, all helped you and your daughter and have led to improvements and benefitted her and your family.

I will absolutely ensure that this feedback is delivered to the right people in our team alongside our Senior Management Team who lead on developing the quality initiatives.

Thank you once again - all feedback is incredibly important to us.

We wish you all the best for the future.

Lesley Dunabie

Department Manager/Head of Nursing in CAMHS

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