Desperate for advice re DS

[Zazzabeans]

DS is 12 in November, he has mobile to moderator cerebral palsy, as well as other issues such as bedwetting (2-3 times every night , never once had a dry night) learning difficulties and I think he has aspergers/autism.
Paed reffered him to camhs July 2013 due to senior school transfer happening sept 2014, giving them plenty of time to see him, however he is still on the waiting list. I rang 5 weeks ago and said he was getting worse and they said he should be seen within 4 weeks, still nothing, I rang yesterday and the duty sw told me that the person that deals with appointments was off and she was sorry she couldn't help me any further at that time.
So my son is due to start mainstream seniors in step with very little support in place and his anxiety is getting worse, he is starting to avoid social outings and playing out.
Any advice?

[OneInEight]

Sorry to be negative but even if you do get to seen them CAMHS is not always as much help as you think they should be.

Our experience is with ds1 and ds2 whose only difficulty is AS and associated anxiety. We did try medication briefly for ds2 when he started refusing to go out of the house as well as school-refusing but although did lift the anxiety a little had horrible side effects so we stopped. By the time we got an appointment neither were in a fit state to do CBT stuff with so both are now effectively discharged and I am left wondering why I went through the anguish of dragging them to appointments.

What has helped my two is support via school although this has taken a long time. Have you spoken to the SENCO of his new school to discuss his difficulties and what support can be put in place. If not try and set this up as early in the term as you can. It might be that he needs an EHCP plan but perhaps discuss with the SENCO first. Lot's of the things that can make children less anxious don't actually require a huge amount of resources like exit passes, or somewhere quiet to go to at breaks. PolterGoose and IneedMorePatience have children starting secondary also in September so hopefully they will be along soon to tell you what support they have asked for. Mine have ended up in specialist schools so a bit different.

With respect to the anxiety about going out which ds2 suffers from quite badly our approach is to do little but often rather than either forcing the issue or backing down completely. We also try and give him an element of choice as to both where we go and how long we stay. This has meant some trips last only a few minutes but he is improving. Yesterday he managed 5 hours & it almost felt like we were a normal family again!

[LairyPoppins]

You really need to urgently contact the SENDCO of the Secondary School if you have not been in touch already.

In this situation our local secondary school would have been doing transition for 3 or 4 months (additional visits, orientation, meeting teachers etc.)

I do hope you can get some help before he begins.

[Zazzabeans]

Thanks for replies, I am 95 percent certain he has aspergers, I'm hoping camhs can diagnose him ??

It I certainly is a very scary time for parents and children with sn to be starting secondary :(

I have spoken to senco at new school already (several times) but she is going on maternity leave quite early on in sept :(

[Icimoi]

Was he on school action or school action plus at primary? If so, they should have passed on the details to the secondary school. Has anyone suggested applying for statutory assessment?

[Zazzabeans]

Yes he is on school action plus...no statutory assessment :(

[OneInEight]

Yes, CAMHS should be able to do diagnosis although my ds's got theirs through the community paediatricians so a possible different route if you get no joy out of CAMHS.