"I am at a loss of how I can help her"

Over 8 weeks ago we were advised by her he GP to make a referral to CAMHS on behalf of our daughter. We did this in the same day. My daughter had been struggling for several months with meltdowns and we reached out to the GP as we were worried about her mental health. She was having extreme panic attacks and they were getting worse by the day, with her waking at night, hallucinating from lack of sleep and having severe meltdowns that would last hours.

We provided this information to CAMHS and the GP. Over the coming weeks my daughter’s condition worsened, we had to ring 111 in the middle of the night several times. She became extremely violent when having attacks and it was made worse as she couldn’t sleep. We have phoned CAMHS and CAMHS crisis for help and we have received no support at all and we have basically been told it’s our parenting. We have gone through a private assessment due to lack of help and my daughter is autistic and has extreme anxiety, we have provided this information to CAMHS to be told they have even looked at the referral yet.

I do not understand what it will take to get my daughter help, she cries asking for help and I am at a loss of how I can help her. The clinicians I have spoken to on my many calls are rude, patronising and impatient. I was advised to just let her fall to sleep when she can, without them even taking into consideration the meltdowns and panic attacks she has to go through before becoming exhausted and falling to sleep at 8am. She gets to a point where she has to have several showers in the early hours of the morning to get the ‘bugs’ off her or she escapes from the house as she cannot breathe and believes she is going to die. I have spoken to the GP several times, basically begged for help just to be told I need to wait for CAMHS. I have not been provided one single update from CAMHS, I have asked several times about the process just to be told the assessment we have paid privately for will provide direction.

I am astonished how a GP service and mental health department can leave a 10 year old girl going through this ordeal and allowing her mental state to deteriorate. She cannot get dressed, leave the house or most importantly attend school as this is part of her anxiety. A 10 year old girl having panic attacks every single day and night to me is urgent, especially when she’s crying she wants to die. I feel let down and I just hope that CAMHS are officially audited and the lack of service and empathy they provide is highlighted. In the meantime my little girl continues to suffer and doesn’t understand why the doctors won’t help her, at what point do CAMHS class a referral as urgent. 

There are several other concerns I have highlighted around obsessiveness and being able to move because her hair touches her and still none of them have been taken seriously.