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Feb 28 2024
CAMHS & Parent Blame: The impact on the Autistic family

I have written extensively on the impact of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) failures on Autistic children and young people. I would be doing a disservice however if I did not talk about the wider reaching impact for the whole family unit. When our children suffer, we suffer. The injustice of services failing to uphold rights of our children can have a detrimental effect on our own wellbeing. However, it can be worse than simply being told “no”. In some cases (more than people care to admit) we face being blamed for our children’s suffering. This has become an entrenched issue in the UK and wider western society, and if left unaddressed it threatens to cause intense harm to Autistic people and their families.

Parent carer blame existed long before CAMHS

Parent carer blame has been an issue for most of the past century. Most famously it can be seen (with regards to autism) in the work of Bruno Bettleheim through the 1950’s and 1960’s with his concept of the “refrigerator mother”. Bettleheim posited that autism was caused by emotionally distant mothers with a detached parenting style. He further popularised this concept with his book The Empty Fortress which was published in 1967. Over the years such parent blame has shifted and changed as knowledge has grown, but it usually focused on mothers, and always engaged in developmentalism; by which it is suggested that there is a “typical” rate of development that all should be measured by. It is also suggested that development is located in the parental relationship (again sounding reminiscent of Bettleheims “refrigerator mother”). The words may have changed over the years, the effect remains the same.

The effect of neoliberalism on parenting

Neoliberalism is based in the idea that individuals should be self-reliant while contributing to wider society. This obviously has ramifications for the capitalist economic system that prioritises productivity over personal wellbeing. Neoliberalism suggests that while supports for our welfare may exist at the state level, individuals should be frugal in their use of them. It is the basis of exclusionary gate-keeping policies, and contributes heavily to parent carer blame. In a world that asks you to rely on yourself, asking for help is seen as a failure.

Understanding parent carer blame in professional services

Parent carer blame has become somewhat of an institutional practice (Clements & Aiello, 2021). It is centered in the belief that development is placed within the domain of parenting. It is also upheld by the neoliberal approach to parenting (Tabatabai, 2020). In this context, it involves the practice of denying supports for disabled young people and then criticising the parents or carers for any negative outcome. This is particularly concerning as it can lead to both implicit and explicit accusations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) (Hollingworth et al, 2023). In short, parent carer blame has become a means of denying support and vilifying parents who oppose services failing to meet legal requirements.

How does CAMHS engage in parent carer blame?

Research suggests that strong parent-professional alliance is a predictor of better outcomes from therapeutic approaches (Kazdin & Blase, 2011). Despite this, CAMHS are well known for breaking the trust between parent’s and professionals by placing blame on parents for their child’s mental health concerns. This starts with smaller things such as referrals to parenting courses, and extends into safeguarding referrals and FII accusations. In particular, Jackson et al (2020) found that parents were made to wait for long periods of time for support. This feeds into parent carer blame where services are denied for long periods, and then parents are held responsible for the negative outcome.

What is the impact of CAMHS parent blame on parental mental health?

Jackson et al (2020) found a wide range of impacts on the mental health of mothers. While the study looked at mothers specifically, I believe it’s findings are applicable to all in a parental position. The study looked at accessing mental health services for their children, but is indicative of the parent carer blame that is rife in UK institution. Two of the primary outcomes were feeling alone and as though they were responsible for their child’s struggles. As you can imagine, this is not conducive to healthy parenting due to the impact on ones confidence and self-esteem.

The study also mentions the vicarious traumatisation of parents through fear of losing a child to suicide. Having a suicidal child is possibly one of the most terrifying experiences that a parent can experience, and yet services in the UK are failing to act on this in a timely manner. They go on to mention the breakdown in parent-professional relations with many parents feeling “rejected”. If we can not trust a service, how are we supposed to safely engage with them?

What does this mean for Autistic parents trying to engage CAMHS?

Autistic people live in a world of constant invalidation and rejection. Many of us have experienced traumatisation via poor professional attitudes from a young age. Parent carer blame then represents a thematic resurgence in the same attitudes and associated feelings that have been thrown at Autistic parents since childhood. When we are trying to integrate and create equality for disabled people, parent carer blame is the antithesis of support for this. In order to have Autistic people feel safe in this world, it’s not enough to simply provide mental health support, we need the whole family unit to feel safe to come forward, without fear of being held responsible for actions outside of their control.

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References

Clements, L., & Aiello, A. L. (2021). Institutionalising parent carer blame. The Experiences of Families with Disabled Children in Their Interactions with English Local Authority Children’s Services Departments. Cerebra. University of Leeds.

Hollingworth, D., Ferguson, L., Schaub, J., & Kempson-Byrne, S. (2023). Autism and Parental Blame: A Systematic Literature Review.

Jackson, L., Keville, S., & Ludlow, A. K. (2020). Mothers’ experiences of accessing mental health care for their child with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29, 534-545.

Kazdin, A. E., & Blase, S. L. (2011). Interventions and models of their delivery to reduce the burden of mental illness: Reply to commentaries. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(5), 507-510.

Tabatabai, A. (2020). Mother of a person: neoliberalism and narratives of parenting children with disabilities. Disability & Society, 35(1), 111-131.

David Gray-Hammond 0 Comments
Feb 19 2024
School and CAMHS failed me; This is what happened

There are two domains that come up time and time again in UK neurodiversity circles. The first is education, in particular the lack of appropriate Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. With over half a million Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCP’s) currently active as of January 2023 (UK Government, Accessed 2024) one might think that resources would be directed to this area, but no, they are not. The other domain is mental health, in particular Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). There has been an ongoing campaign for over a year now. This includes a petition with over 200,000 signatures calling for action to be taken on the failure of CAMHS to support Autistic young people (also the topic of my most recent book). It seems as though nothing ever changes. A great deal of harm is done, and I intend to lay that out by talking about my own experiences.

Why are school and CAMHS such important topics for Autistic people?

I have previously written about the disturbingly high rates of suicide and suicidal ideation in Autistic young people. School and CAMHS play a role in this. Not only is school a place where we learn skills for adult life, it is a place where our neurodivergence is often identified. Harmful school environments and low-quality training in neurodiversity mean that many young people are going undiagnosed and eventually being represented in suicide statistics such as the 10% of suicides that were people with likely undiagnosed autism (Uni of Cambridge, 2022).

For those identified by the system, there is a great deal of exclusion from services such as CAMHS who often reject referrals of Autistic young people. This means that Autistic children are struggling through childhood and education, entering adulthood with unaddressed mental health needs, and at increased risk of poverty because of their experience of education (Tian & Ma, 2023). School and CAMHS set young people up for a life of struggle on multiple fronts.

How did school fail me as an Autistic person?

I was the weird kid. When other boys were off playing football, I was doing 5 dance classes a week at a relatively prestigious dance academy. I was bullied from the age of 6. Teachers would argue that the bullying was my own fault for being different. If I would just try to be more like the other boys, they said, I would be so much happier. It seemed that they were only interested in stamping out my individuality rather than nurturing my interests. Despite me being at odds with my peers. Despite my obvious differences. Despite the please of my mother. They failed to identify my neurodivergence. I was was doomed, it seemed, to struggle through school.

At the age of 10 I made my first suicide attempt. A GP would write letters trying to get me support and hold my school to account, but those pleas fell on the ears of ones who would rather not listen. I spent my entire time in the school system without any kind of learning support. I was also experiencing trauma outside of school that went unnoticed and unaddressed. It seemed that I was solely responsible for the outcome of my life, even when I was too young to truly understand the ramifications of that outcome. By age 15 I had enough and had what was described as a “nervous breakdown”. I now know it was Autistic shutdown secondary to burnout.

How did CAMHS fail me as an Autistic person?

CAMHS didn’t see me after my first suicide attempt, in fact they didn’t see me until several months after the “nervous breakdown” I had at age 15. By this point I had been having night terrors for years, waking nightmares where the world ceased to exist and was instead replaced by things generated by my mind. This was perhaps the first indication that something more than depression was going on, and yet no one identified those concerns. CAMHS were no help. After months of waiting, I got to see a psychiatrist for 5 minutes who discharged me for not wanting medication after 5 minutes of consultation. Through out my childhood, CAMHS had multiple opportunities to intervene and help, they chose not to. Again, it was down to me to be more “resilient”. It didn’t matter that the world was throwing punches at me. Services wanted me to be better at taking the punches.

What was the result of these failures?

I left school with too few GCSE’s to study my A-Levels. Despite being academically gifted, I could not cope with the pressure. I did catch up eventually and get into university, but I still struggled. In my third and final year of sixth-form college I began to hear voices and experience paranoia. Knowing that service would fail me again, and too scared to admit what was happening to me, I turned to cannabis and alcohol.

Over the next few years this would escalate into daily use of morphine, diazepam, and spice. Coupled with anything else I could get my hands on. My addiction got so severe that my friends and family planned my funeral while I was still alive. My life was over in the eyes of so many. The failures of institutions of my childhood had led me to become a drug-addicted, and (at the time) undiagnosed Schizophrenic. It took many years to reach a place of safety.

Why am I telling this story about school and CAMHS?

My story is not an isolated incident. Autistic children and young people are still being failed by these institutions. Education and mental health services are exacerbating these outcomes by failing to appropriately support us. So, in part, I am telling this story to hold them to account. I left school in 2006. These issues with education and CAMHS are still happening in 2024. 18 years on and I am still seeing my neurokin suffer. What upsets me the most is that our government knows this is happening, and has done nothing to fix the problem. So I am laying my pain onto the page in the hopes it inspires others to join this fight. To hold services accountable, and make a difference to the countless Autistic young people living in this country.

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David Gray-Hammond 0 Comments
Feb 12 2024
CAMHS in the words of it’s own staff

I have talked extensively of the failures of CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to support Autistic young people. There have been a great number of tragedies at the hands of a service that is not fit for purpose. I have explored my own experiences, parliamentary evidence, research, and the lived experiences of families involved with CAMHS. Sadly, I have also discussed inquests where young people have lost their lives. What I have not done yet is discuss the opinions of those staff working on the frontline of CAMHS. Now, thanks to a report from the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), I intend to take a look at CAMHS in the context of the people working for it.

The Care Quality Commission has significant concerns

“Just this year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated 39% (26 services) of specialist CAMHS as requiring improvement.”

ACP Report (2018)

The Care Quality Commission is the regulating body for services in the mental health sector. Their findings were very worrying. the CQC gives four ratings:

  • Outstanding
  • Good
  • Requires Improvement
  • Inadequate

Almost 40% were rate inadequate, meaning that they were not performing as they should, and that they have been given instruction on how to improve. As of the 2021 State of Care report, the CQC still had significant concerns over CAMHS. That was 3 years after those ratings.

It is clear from these reports that something is incredibly broken. Services are failing to meet need, and seem incapable of providing timely and effective support.

CAMHS own staff have concerns that need to be addressed

“61% said that the main NHS service they work in was facing downsizing”

ACP Report (2018)

This particular statistic is unsurprising, and I believe it is reflective of ongoing political discourse that is leaning towards the gradual privatisation of the NHS and restriction of public funding for NHS services. Services can not afford to expand to meet need. This is concerning because services are downsizing while demand is increasing. This means that staff have larger caseloads to manage on fewer resources.

“72% said that the threshold for access to services has increased in the past 5 years”

ACP Report (2018)

Again, this statistic is unsurprising. Thresholds for access to services will inevitably rise in the absence of resources. The UK operates a crisis-driven intervention model. The issue with such models is that waiting until a young person is in crisis results in caseloads that require more resources that simply don’t exist.

“33% described services as mostly inadequate or completely inadequate”

ACP Report (2018)

A third of surveyed CAMHS staff describe their own service as inadequate. To me, this is deeply concerning. Staff retention in inadequate services is going to be limited, resulting in inconsistency for young people. Not to mention that inadequate services may be doing more harm than good.

“64% reported negative changes in the number of practitioner posts, 62% in sessions
per client and 65% in the frequency of sessions”

ACP Report (2018)

This statistic tells me that staff numbers are reducing, alongside sessions with clients. This is happening at a time when CAMHS services are experiencing increasing demand. As demand increases, the service is at risk of sinking and taking young people with it.

“38% felt there had been a large negative change in staff morale”

ACP Report (2018)

I don’t think I need to tell you that staff with low morale are going to be less effective than staff who are enjoying their job. We want passionate and engaged staff, instead we experience a culture of defensive practice and professional toxicity.

Something that stands out to me in these statistics is that a lot of attention is being given to staff feelings, with less thought to the young people suffering at the hands of ineffective and uncaring services. The primary concern should always be those accessing CAMHS, and yet there is no direct mention of this in the statistics.

What does the Children’s Commissioner say about CAMHS?

According to the report for the 2021-22 period, the state of mental health services for children and young people is somewhat bleak.

“Of the 1.4 million children estimated to have a mental health disorder, less than half (48%)
received at least 1 contact with CYPMHS [Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services] and 34% received at least 2 contacts with CYPMHS.”

Children’s Commissioner (2023)

Less than 700,000 of the 1.4 million children with a mental health problem have had any contact with CAMHS. This is concerning, particularly for Autistic children and young people, 7 out of 10 of whom are estimated to have a mental health problem (Young Minds). We can infer from this that a large number of Autistic young people are not getting support for their mental health. The following statistic highlights this further.

“The percentage of children who had their referrals closed before treatment has increased for
the first time in years. In 2021-22, 32% of children who were referred did not receive treatment
compared to lower numbers in 2020-21 (24%)”

Children’s Commissioner (2023)

We know that a lot of these children are Autistic. Autistic young people are regularly turned away from services for no reason other than their neurocognitive style. Services claim that they are unable to support Autistic young people or that their mental health problems are a part of being Autistic. Not only is this factually wrong, it is like to contribute to the significantly elevated suicide risk among Autistic young people.

CAMHS professionals and regulatory bodies are losing faith in the system

We are at a critical point in the life of CAMHS as a service. No longer is it just Autistic people who have concerns. It’s not even the general CAMHS demographic. The professionals that populate CAMHS and the bodies that oversee it are themselves criticising the system. If the system is recognising it’s own failures and still not changing, we have reached a point where it’s existence is in jeopardy. It’s time for something to change before more lives are lost.

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David Gray-Hammond 1 Comments
Jan 26 2024
What can CAMHS learn from the death of Max Sumner?

“Max Sumner, 17, took his own life on 13 May 2022 while he was under the care of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (‘CAMHS’).

The Coroner concluded today (23 January 2024) that the care he received by CAMHS contributed to his death.”

Farley Solicitors LLP, Press Release, 2024

The above quote comes from a press release from Farley’s Solicitors. Yet again, another young person has had their time on earth cut short, and yet again, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are implicated in the death. It will come as no surprise that this young man was also neurodivergent.

How many CAMHS patients die?

According to Ashton Legal, some 46 CAMHS patients have died from 2019-2022. 20 of those were in the care of inpatient services, 26 following discharge into the community. As of 2022, CAMHS state that they have around 4,000 patients in their units. This represents a mortality rate of 1% for children and young people currently or previously engaged with CAMHS inpatient treatment.

Think about that. 1 in every 100 children in contact with inpatient services is losing their life. By comparison, current statistics place child mortality at 31.8 in every 100,000 (National Child Mortality Database) in the general population. This means that young people with recent contact with CAMHS inpatient services are around 30× more likely to die.

What were the risk factors?

“Max was born and raised in New Longton, Lancashire. He had a love for drama and performance and was a talented artist. When he was 16, Max told his dad he wanted to be known as Max and for people to use male pronouns when referring to him. Max was exceptionally proud of his trans identity and used every opportunity to champion LGBTQ+ rights.”

Farley’s Solicitors, Press Release

Max was a Trans teenager. According to parliamentary evidence, 92% of Trans young people have thought about suicide with 45% making an attempt. This alone represents a significant risk, but it gets worse. Max was ADHD. The University of Glasgow quotes ADHD UK as stating that ADHD’ers are 5 times more likely than none ADHD people to attempt suicide.

One might think that I could stop there, but to be thorough, I can’t. David & Kollins (2012) find that around two-thirds of those diagnosed with ADHD also show significant traits of autism. We know from the Royal College of Psychiatrists that Autistic people are generally 9× more likely to die by suicide, with Autistic young people being 28× more likely to think about it or make an attempt.

CAMHS are not even just ignoring these statistics, I would hazard a guess that they’re not even aware of them. When Max was diagnosed with ADHD, autism should also have been investigated. Unfortunately that is not standard practice in the UK.

Systemic failing in CAMHS cost lives

“The Coroner endorsed the conclusion of the Trust investigator that there were 13 failures with Max’s care:

Clinical and managerial supervision was not facilitated;

Safeguarding supervision was not utilised;

Non-compliance with safeguarding and clinical risk training;

No evidence of a multi-agency safeguarding plan;

No children’s social care referral;

Missed opportunities to discuss Max at a multi-disciplinary team meeting;

No evidence of care planning or safety planning;

Risk assessment not reviewed;

Emails from Max were not shared;

Max’s family were not involved;

No formal diagnosis was pursued and Max had no care or treatment pathway;

There was no follow up of his ADHD assessment;

No evidence of multi-agency working.

In addition, the Coroner found that the safety plan which was discussed and/or in place for Max was insufficient as it contained features such as calling the CAMHS crisis line, something which Max had never done and there was no indication that he ever would have done.”

Farley’s Solicitors, Press Release

What stands out to me is that the systemic failings that led to Max’s death are not just a risk to neurodivergent young people. They represent a risk to all young people within the care of CAMHS. It just happens that the multitude of risk factors coupled with a failing system amounted to the loss of a young person with much to offer the world. This issue should matter to everyone, not just parents of neurodivergent young people.

How much of a factor was unsupported ADHD?

Chang et al (2019) found that ADHD’ers were 31% less likely to attempt suicide when they were taking medication for their ADHD. This highlights the significance of immediate and appropriate follow-up to ADHD assessments. It also suggests a darker side to the ongoing worldwide shortage of ADHD medications when we consider that access to medivation reduces suicide risk by nearly one-third.

Conclusions

“From March 2022, the ONLY known protective factor against Max’s suicidal thoughts was the physical presence of his father in the family home and I accept without question the evidence of Mr Sumner that had he known of Max’s suicidal thoughts he would not have left him alone“

Coroner’s Conclusions in the Inquest

Max was a young man with a future ahead of him. What that future would have looked like is not for me to state. However it looked, Max had a right to it. Sadly, this case represents not just the loss of a potential future, but the loss of yet another valuable and much loved individual.

Max was more than a statistic. He was a human being. He had hopes, dreams, feelings. He had thoughts that he told to others, and those that he kept to himself. He had the same range and capacity of emotions as each and every one of us. All snuffed out because CAMHS couldn’t achieve the bare minimum of being a protective factor.

David’s new book on CAMHS failures is available now in paperback and kindle format

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Front cover of CAMHS in Crisis by David Gray-Hammond
David Gray-Hammond 0 Comments
Jan 18 2024
Forcing Autistic students back into school will cost lives

It’s no secret that many Autistic young people struggle with school attendance. There are a number of reasons for why this happens, but at it’s most basic level we can argue there is a correlation between school-based trauma and an inability to attend educational institutions. Despite years of pushing for better support, the government has now launched Moments Matter, Attendance Counts. This initiative aims to return students who are persistently absent back into the education system. This obviously presents an issue for Autistic students and their families. Such students are often persistently absent, and campaigns such as this one seem to imply that it is a matter of willingness, rather than acknowledge the complexity of the situation.

Why do Autistic students struggle to attend school?

When it comes to being Autistic within the education system, there are innumerable reasons why one might struggle to be in attendance on a daily basis. The simplest way of describing it is that the school environment is often traumatic to Autistic students. One of the first things that comes to mind is the hostile attitudes of education staff towards Autistic young people. Russell et al (2023) found that teachers generally had positive attitudes towards students with special educational needs (SEN). This however is not reflected in the experiences of Autistic students themselves. Brede et al (2017) found that Autistic students had overwhelmingly negative experiences within education and that staff attitudes and training were a major factor in this.

Another contributory factor is the various ways Autistic children can be traumatised (more on this here). School represents a place where students are exposed to sensory trauma, invalidation, and bullying and victimisation on a daily basis. Is it any surprise that Autistic students will often be forcibly excluded from this system that by design is hostile to them? Students report being treated as “the problem” with staff shouting at them and excluding them from the classroom (Gray et al, 2023).

“The teachers shouted a lot, and they were like really aggressive… they would start shouting at me because I tend to zone out a lot as well, and I always ask the person next to me what’s going on, so then I got told off for that, and I got sent out a lot.”

Student Interviewee as recorded in Gray et al (2023)

How is removing a child from a classroom repeatedly any different to them not being in attendance?

What are the governments aims with this campaign?

The Moments Matter campaign has a particularly short-sighted goal in mind.

“More than one million children and young people will be supported into regular education as part of a major expansion of the attendance hubs, which provide a range of tailored support to families and pupils to boost time in school.”

Quote from gov.uk page about the campaign

I note the ambiguous mention of attendance hubs in this quote, and wanted to look into what they actually do. It turns out that they have nothing to do with the students themselves, and are instead aimed at the schools, giving them space to workshop ideas around improving attendance. In there own words:

“

You can access support by expressing an interest in being part of an attendance hub. After we’ve matched you to a hub, the lead school will invite you to virtual hub meetings. These virtual hub meetings are an opportunity to:

  • refine your approach to managing attendance in school
  • share good practice for managing attendance with others
  • discuss any common challenges you’re facing

You should use what you learn during the meetings to make changes to your school’s existing processes for managing attendance.”

Government Guidance on Attendance Hubs

It’s also important to note the expansion of mentoring models aimed at improving attendance rates in school:

“The programme will see trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September 2024.””

Quote from gov.uk page about the campaign

As a professional mentor myself, this concerns me. Mentoring is not a simple field of work. Particularly when working with Autistic students, one needs to have neurodivergence competency. You can not just walk in off the street at mentor an Autistic person. I would also note that mentoring where the goal is set by a third party, and not the mentee, is not how mentoring should be conducted.

The link between school attendance and mental health

It has been assumed that good attendance correlates with good mental health (Finning et al, 2022). When working with Autistic students however this becomes less clear. Much of what is reported in the Autistic community is that Autistic young people experience worsening of their mental health within mainstream school environments. It’s important to remember that Autistic children are 28x more likely to think about or attempt suicide compared to Autistic people of all ages who are just 9x more likely (statistics from Royal College of Psychiatrists). The main difference I see in experiences between Autistic adults and young people is that Autistic adults are not forced to attend educational institutions.

Attendance it would seem does not always mean better wellbeing. For some Autistic people and their families, it can be the difference between a happy life, and saying goodbye to a loved one for the last time. This campaign shows no respect for the people who have lost their lives to the school system.

I would like to direct people to this article from Autistic Inclusive Meets that gives moving testimony on the realities of being Autistic in the mainstream education system.

Can school take a trauma-informed approach to Autistic students?

In terms of taking trauma-informed approaches to Autistic students, research is inconsistent. The best consensus I could find was Stratford et al (2020). This paper found that the most change in trauma symptoms was found in health settings, not educational settings. One could argue that given the rate of trauma in Autistic populations, all schools should take a trauma-informed approach. However, I would note that the educational setting is probably not the best environment for dealing with school-related trauma. Doing such would be similar to providing trauma therapy on a battlefield; how can we work on our trauma while we are fighting to survive?

What can be done instead to help get Autistic students into education?

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner states that requests for EHCP’s (Education, Health, and Care Plans) have risen by 23% since 2021. The total number of children with an active EHCP has risen by 9.5% to a total of 517,000 children. Despite this, the EHCP process remains a bureaucratic minefield that often fails to give Autistic students the support they are legally entitled to. In my opinion, overhauling the entire EHCP process and improving access to meaningful alternatives to mainstream education would be more effective for ensuring that children have access to education.

Moments do matter. Right now at this moment we are standing at a crossroads, deciding if we should push antiquated models of school attendance and achievement or fight for a system that is inclusive of all students, not just those of a predominant neurocognitive style. Attendance only counts if Autistic students are able to learn while in school. In the institutions current form, no amount of attendance will help. You can’t learn effectively while trying to survive. It’s time for the government to listen to marginalised students, and not blindly create new campaigns in the name of “best interests”.

Make sure you check out David’s new book about how CAMHS fail to support Autistic young people

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References

Brede, J., Remington, A., Kenny, L., Warren, K., & Pellicano, E. (2017). Excluded from school: Autistic students’ experiences of school exclusion and subsequent re-integration into school. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 2, 2396941517737511.

Finning, K., Ford, T., & Moore, D. A. (Eds.). (2022). Mental health and attendance at school. Cambridge University Press.

Gray, L., Hill, V., & Pellicano, E. (2023). “He’s shouting so loud but nobody’s hearing him”: A multi-informant study of autistic pupils’ experiences of school non-attendance and exclusion. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 8, 23969415231207816.

Russell, A., Scriney, A., & Smyth, S. (2023). Educator Attitudes towards the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders in mainstream education: a systematic review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10(3), 477-491.

Stratford, B., Cook, E., Hanneke, R., Katz, E., Seok, D., Steed, H., … & Temkin, D. (2020). A scoping review of school-based efforts to support students who have experienced trauma. School Mental Health, 12, 442-477.

David Gray-Hammond 0 Comments
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