safeguarding - Emergent Divergence

What is institutional parent/carer blame and why is it relevant to Autistic people and their families?

“Disabled children and their families are one of the most severely disadvantaged
groups in the UK. They are ‘significantly more likely to live under conditions
that have been shown to impede development, educational attainment and
adjustment to and increase the risk of poor health, additional impairment and
social exclusion’.

Clements & Aiello (2021)

Institutionalised Parent/Carer Blame is the practice by societies institutions of taking an adversarial approach to supporting children and young people. In the context of social care, this often looks like issuing safeguarding proceedings when a needs assessment is required. Autistic and disabled families run foul of this far too often (as mentioned in the quoted report). Sadly, CAMHS also engage in this kind of practice.

What is the most common form of parent blame in CAMHS?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommend parenting courses as “evidence-based interventions”. In particular, these courses are often aimed at parents of Autistic children. Unfortunately, not only are these courses often unhelpful, they position parents who are likely to be disabled themselves as the root of their child’s struggle. Failure to engage with the tools of this parent/carer blame can lead to social care involvement and safeguarding reports. It is the weaponisation of the system and defensive practice.

It is failing Autistic children.

Why do CAMHS engage in institutionalised parent/carer blame?

In my opinion, a significant factor in the practice of parent/carer blame is the need to gatekeep resources, coupled with a failure to understand Autistic children and their families within their unique context. In social care, this can be seen by the absence of clear guidance on how to approach disabled children and their families in the Working Together Document (2018). This sets the stage for countless inappropriate safeguarding referrals and systemic hostility.

Not only are CAMHS (self-professed) to not have the skills or knowledge to work with Autistic people, they are losing important resources year on year.

“…government statistics show a 25% increase in the number of young people with a mental health need – from 61,830 in 2019 to 77,390 last year.”

The Guardian (2022)

Despite the post-COVID increase in mental health problems amongst young people, funding and resources for CAMHS have not changed in a positive way. This has led to a shortage of skilled staff and a culture of defensive practice. Autistic young people, like many disabled people, are treated as an acceptable loss.

What is the result of parent/carer blame for Autistic families?

“…one in five GPs (18%) knows of a patient who has tried to, or taken, their own life after being refused care – often on the justification that their condition was not ‘severe’ enough.”

Disability Rights UK (2022)

Not only are Autistic young people losing their lives due to CAMHS failures, there is an ever present risk of family breakdown. Families who can not get the correct support risk harm to the entire family unit, not just the Autistic young person in crisis. The victims of CAMHS failures are a far wider group. We hurt when our loved ones hurt. Yet, CAMHS are still willing to contribute to the criminalisation of parents whose only crime was to ask for help.

Aug 21 2023

Here are the reasons why CAMHS endangers Autistic children

If you believe that there are no issues with the way that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) treats UK Autistic children and young people, I would direct you to take a look at the ongoing petition that has over 200,000 signatures. That’s a fifth of a million people who have witnessed the failures and harms exacted on Autistic children and young people by a service that is meant to save them.

Something that I keep coming back to is that CAMHS as a service needs to do more than open it’s doors to our children. In it’s current state, CAMHS could do more harm than good. I very strongly believe that in order for CAMHS to be a fit place to support Autistic people, they need to change on a fundamental level. In light of this, here are some of the issues within the current system.

Safeguarding instead of mental health care

One of the most common stories that we hear surrounding CAMHS is families of Autistic children finding themselves being referred to safeguarding services within their local authority (LA). This has become a prevalent issue that can make accessing services feel hostile and dangerous. Given that parents of Autistic children are often disabled themselves, it seems pertinent to note the increased rate at which they experience Institutionalised Parent/Carer Blame (IPCB).

This highlights a significant issue with the move over to Single Point of Access (SPoA) referrals. There can be significant disparities from area to area in triage outcomes meaning that Autistic young people and their families often do not get access to the services they need.

Lack of knowledge around Autistic and neurodivergent experience

I have spoken at length about the impact that a lack of cultural competency among professionals can have. In particular I would highlight this article I co-authored with Tanya Adkin. It is impossible for professionals to be safe for Autistic young people while they are lacking essential knowledge that can only be found by engaging with the Autistic community.

Many of the professionals within CAMHS are working from outdated and stereotyped knowledge around what autism looks like and how best to support Autistic people. This lack of knowledge can and does endanger the health and wellbeing of our children and young people. It highlights a level of disdain for minority communities when they ask for professionals to learn from them and not from an outdated textbook.

Poor handling of children vulnerable to exploitation

This is a significant issue for Autistic young people. In particular I think of the case of Ben Nelson-Roux. This young person died a victim of exploitation due to multi-agency failure (as documented in the linked article). Had CAMHS had a better professional practice regarding neurodivergence and exploitation, his story may not have ended in tragedy.

We have to highlight here the power that CAMHS have in cases such as these. When CAMHS fail to take criminal exploitation seriously, it has knock on effects for the support they receive from all services involved. CAMHS as a whole needs to be significantly more skilled in this area due to it’s prevalence among Autistic demographics.

Defensive Practice

Defensive practice occurs most commonly when services are more concerned with metrics than people. Within CAMHS this often manifests in refusals for support, and labeling service users as “not engaging” when inappropriate approaches are used for neurodivergent young people.

This might also manifest as the overuse or inappropriate use of restrictive practices and deprivation of liberty. Again, this tends to arise from a need to meet targets and achieve certain metrics rather than meaningfully support young people.

Gate-keeping of services

This one is the whole reason we’re here, and fits in with the aforementioned defensive practice. When you don’t have the skills to support a neurodivergent person, you simply refuse them access to services. This gate keeping is deadly for some young people, and trust policies that allow for it to happen play a role in the disturbingly elevated suicidality rate for Autistic young people.

Autistic people experience a great deal of psychological distress in a world that is actively hostile towards them, and yet CAMHS fails to provide them with meaningful support. In many cases they fail to provide any support at all. If we want to see an improvement in the metrics that matter (for example, measure of quality of life), much of the current mental health system in the UK needs to be restructured. This will not be a quick campaign, but it will be effective.

Please support the ongoing campaign around CAMHS and Autistic young people by signing this petition and attending this protest.

David Gray-Hammond 0 Comments

Tag Archives: safeguarding

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