Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Page 1 of 13
Islington Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
Neurodevelopmental Pathway
Assessment and Diagnosis for Children and
Adolescents with Neurodevelopmental Conditions including:
Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC), Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Intellectual Disability (ID)
Adaptations may need to be made to the assessment process during the 2020 pandemic, in line with Government guidance & Trust guidelines.
Page 2 of 13
The Islington CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Pathway offers high quality, family-
centred, assessments of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Intellectual Disability (ID) for Islington’s children
and adolescents between 5-18 years of age. Your child might have been referred
for an assessment for one or several of these conditions. If your child has been
referred for an assessment for more than one of these conditions then we will aim
to carry out all assessment at once.
Following assessments, we try to help children, young people and parents find
effective solutions to the difficulties they may have.
We work as a multi-disciplinary team, including Child and adolescent psychiatrists,
Clinical psychologists, Speech and language therapists, Occupational therapists,
Family therapists, Child psychotherapists, Assistant psychologists and
Paediatricians.
We will:
Tailor our approach to meet the individual needs of each child or young person
Work with parents and carers to enable you to make informed choices and
access support to address your child’s changing needs
Work with education services as well as the national and local voluntary sector to
help you and your child.
Work with children and families to understand your views and perspectives about
all aspects of your experience in our service
Collaborate with other teams within CAMHS and across other agencies
Islington CAMHS
Neurodevelopmental Pathway
What do we do?
Page 3 of 13
A developmental disorder is something that people acquire before, during or soon
after birth. Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is a type of developmental disorder.
There are no simple medical tests that can diagnose ASC. Professionals will make a
diagnosis by gathering information from multiple sources about how a child or young
person behaves and communicates. ASC can affect children’s development in the
following areas (these can also occur in other conditions):
Communication
Understanding other people
Understanding social rules
Understanding emotions
Imagination and flexibility
Sensory processing: e.g. light, sound, texture
Autism is commonly referred to as a spectrum condition. This means there can
be a wide variety of strengths and difficulties. All children with ASC have strengths
and there are a number of skills and strategies they can learn so that they manage
their difficulties better.
Your child may have been referred for assessment of any of the following conditions:
What is Autism?
Page 4 of 13
Albert Einstein – Scientist
Andy Warhol - Artist
Lewis Carroll – Children’s author
Tim Burton – Film director
Darryl Hannah- Actress
Chris Packham – TV presenter
Greta Thunberg - Environmentalist
Stanley Kubrick – Film director
Courtney Love- Singer
Talia Grant - Actress
Some Famous People with Autism
Page 5 of 13
A developmental disorder is something that people acquire before, during or
soon after birth. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a type
of developmental disorder. There are no simple medical tests that can
diagnose ADHD. Professionals will make a diagnosis by gathering information
from multiple sources about how a child or young person behaves. ADHD can
affect children’s development in the following areas (these can also occur in
other conditions):
Inattention (difficulty concentrating and remembering things)
Impulsivity (difficulty thinking things through before doing them or
waiting)
Hyperactivity (need to move or talk a lot, lots of energy)
All children with ADHD have strengths and there are a number of skills and
strategies they can learn so that they manage their difficulties better.
Jamie Oliver – Chef
Will Smith – Movie Star
Simone Biles - Gymnast
Emma Watson - Actress
Michael Phelps - Olympic Swimmer
Steven Spielberg – Movie Director
Avril Lavigne – Singer and Songwriter
Lisa Ling – TV journalist
What is ADHD?
Some Famous People with ADHD
Page 6 of 13
A Learning or Intellectual Disability (ID) affects the way that someone learns
throughout their lifetime. Early in life the child may have been delayed in
meeting their developmental milestones, like sitting, walking, toilet training and
talking. People with an intellectual disability tend to take longer to learn and
may need support to:
Develop new skills
Understand complicated information
Interact with other people
Cope independently
There is not a medical test for intellectual disability, but there are some
assessments that you and your child will need to complete to help
professionals understand their learning needs, and their independence and
daily living skills.
Nicolas Maroney – Paralympic basketball player
The England Learning Disabilities Football Team
Jamie Brewer – Actress and Model
Sam Barnard – Actor
What is ID?
Some Famous People with ID
Page 7 of 13
What does the assessment involve?
We will invite you and your son or daughter to attend a series of appointments.
Although we work as a multidisciplinary team you will be assigned a case co-
ordinator.
Here is an outline of the possible parts to an assessment:
Up to 3 or 4 meetings for ‘core’ assessment
With your permission, we will make contact with school to gather
information, and we might visit to observe your child there
One initial family meeting
A clinic morning with separate child and parent sessions (if your
child will cope with this.) Your child’s assessment may include a
standardised assessment such as an ADOS or a cognitive
assessment, as well as different age appropriate activities or
tasks. It may be useful to bring a snack for your child as the
morning may last 3 hours (with a short break in the middle)
Possible extra meetings if additional assessments are needed: e.g.
additional cognitive, speech and language or occupational therapy
assessment.
Page 8 of 13
Assessment: Timeline
We aim to complete our ‘core’ assessment and provide a face to face
feedback meeting for parents within 1-3 weeks of the assessment sessions
We aim to provide a child-friendly report if required
We aim to complete a finalised ‘official’ report for parents and professionals within 12 weeks of the feedback
Occasionally the final report may take longer e.g. if additional assessments are required
Usually, we can offer a school feedback meeting to which parents are also invited, as soon as can be arranged
Explaining to your child about the assessment
This can be difficult but we recommend you do explain something about the
assessment. (Some parents are keen to explain that we aim to find out if
they have any conditions like autism or ADHD)
We give you a social story about the appointments, different according to
age
We welcome your child’s feedback on these!
Try to pick up on what your child might be worried about e.g. is it making or
keeping friends, listening to other people, coping with distractions or noise,
finding certain situations difficult to cope with?
Explain that the assessment will try to find reasons for this, and help them
get around their problems and worries
The assessment will also focus on what they are good at- their strengths
It may be important to say we see lots of young people here with similar
difficulties
Page 9 of 13
What about confidentiality?
Everything you tell or that is written down will remain private and confidential
within your child’s NHS records. We will always ask your permission before
sharing information with anyone working outside our service.
The only time where we may need to share information without your permission
would be if we learned that either you, your child or someone else were at
significant risk of harm. Even in this situation we will always let you know what
information we have shared and with whom.
We may ask your permission to film one of the sessions involving play based
and conversational tasks (if your child has an ADOS- a specific autism
assessment). We never let anyone outside our team view this unless you give
us your permission.
Parents and young people have asked whether this film will be put on the
internet. The answer is always NO!
Please tell us if you have sensitive information to be kept confidential and we
always try to respect your wishes.
Page 10 of 13
What happens if my child is given a diagnosis?
At the feedback your case co-ordinator will help you to think about the next steps for your
family. Support we offer, depending on the diagnosis, could include
A post diagnostic workshop. This covers information about your child’s condition,
discussing the diagnosis with your child and services in the community.
An educational programme for parents eg for Autism we offer the Cygnet course for parents of children with ASC.
. We will also:
Support links to other services such as family support workers, voluntary
organisations or parent support groups
Give practical advice about where to go for help with benefits, education issues,
etc.
Refer you to other specialist services as required e.g. Speech and Language
Therapy within the school, Bridge Outreach Service (autism advice for mainstream
school).
What happens if my child is not given a diagnosis?
Where a diagnosis is not given we will refer your son or daughter to the most
appropriate team(s) to meet any needs identified in our assessment, if required.
These teams will help you understand your child’s difficulties better and find solutions.
These teams could be:
Another team at Islington CAMHS e.g. if your child has depression
Services outside CAMHS e.g. Bright Start (Family Support) and mentoring
services.
What happens next?
Page 11 of 13
Vicky Matthews
Clinical Psychologist and Team lead
Jen Gallagher
Clinical Psychologist and Team lead
Cristal Oxley
Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
Colleen Williams
Team Administrator
Who can I contact for more information?
Page 12 of 13
Islington Children and Families
Local services for children and families in Islington
Family information service 0207 527 5959
Website www.islington.gov.uk/services/children-families
Islington SEND Community Support Service
Provide advice, information and support with all matters relating to special
educational needs and disability in education for parents, carers and young people
up to the age of 25 years.
Tel 020 3031 6651/ 020 3031 6652
Website www.family-action.org.uk
Email [email protected]
National Autistic Society
Information, training and resources on Autism
Helpline 0808 800 4104
(10-4pm, Mon-Fri)
Website www.autism.org.uk
ADHD resources
https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk
Centre 404
Centre404.org.uk
Parent and carer information and support service
Parent support groups
Website www.centre404.org.uk
Page 13 of 13
How can you find us?
Address for all appointments
Islington CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Pathway
3rd Floor
Northern Health Centre
580 Holloway Road
London N7 6LB
Phone 020 3316 1825/1824
E-mail CAMHS Admin: [email protected]
Website www.whittington.nhs.uk/camhs
Tube We are a 15-20 minute walk away from Holloway Tube
(Piccadilly Line) and Archway Tube (Northern Line)
Buses 17, 43, 263 and 271 stop just outside the Northern Health
Centre
