CAMHS in Crisis: Wait Times Are Harming Autistic Children
There are a multitude of ways that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are harming our Autistic children and young people. Perhaps one of the most evident ways this is happening is the appallingly long wait times for access to services. Even some 24 years ago, My referral at the age of 10 years old did not come to fruition until I was 15 and missing huge amounts of school. We are only taken seriously when not acting will hurt services. So, we have long wait times. How long are they and what harm do they do?
How long are CAMHS waiting times?
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there were over 400,000 children on CAMHS waiting lists as of May 2023, with almost 18,000 of those being on a waiting list for over a year. The same source cites a 9 month average wait for those who are suspected to be Autistic. One might question how children in crisis are expected to wait 9 months for diagnosis and the (non-existent) support they are entitled to. I would highlight at this point how mental health of people of any age has not been a funding priority for many years, which has likely contributed to the attrition of viable services.
What is the impact of long CAMHS wait lists?
Worsening Mental Health
The longer Autistic children are left to wait for support, the worse their mental health can become. Supporting our children with their mental health should be done with great urgency, and yet many of our children are being left to struggle through, compounding trauma with further trauma.
Increased Risk of Crisis
Further to the above point, as mental health worsens, the risk of life threatening crisis increases. Many children are being sent to CAMHS on the brink of crisis, if they are not there already. They are then being faced by long wait times to access support that is not well designed for them.
Disrupted Educational and Social Development
Many Autistic people (including myself) face exclusion from school systems and social opportunities via their worsening mental health. It is no secret that mental health problems come with a lot of stigma, and educational institutions and social activities are often the first thing we lose access to as our world shrinks.
Reduced Engagement With Services
Failure to address children and young people’s needs in good time can seriously impact on our trust in the system. Autistic children in particular may already struggle to trust people due to the trauma that society puts us through. We can not be surprised that Autistic children struggle to engage with services that make them feel like an afterthought.
What can we do to change CAMHS wait lists?
One of the primary ways we can improve wait times is by lobbying our government to make mental health a priority. Services like CAMHS need more funding and resources. Besides this, we need better training for staff and an increased presence of neurodivergent competent staff within the service. Ultimately we need neurodivergent people working for CAMHS, which is going to take some huge systemic changes from a service that has been (at time) hostile towards neurodivergent staff.
We need to join our voices together and make noise about this. Silence is complicity, neutrality is complicity. The only thing that is going to push these changed through is making noise and showing that we will not tolerate our children being treated this way. I often think of my own child and the future I want to leave for him. I want to know that he, and any children he may have are living in a world that supports and nurtures them.
Every child lost is a scar on the face of a country that is supposed to be a leading world power.
