Tag Archives: camhs

Doctors cure, nurses care?

June 8, 2008 – 10:05 pm

Seaneen has written an interesting and very thoughtful piece giving her relative views on psychiatrists and mental health nurses. Seaneen prefers the nurses to the doctors, and feels more understood by them.
The debate that follows in the comments thread is also quite interesting. Some people agree with Seaneen. Others report the opposite - that they’ve [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , | Comments (19)

The Politics of the Family

May 29, 2008 – 10:28 pm

I’d just like to draw attention to a comment made by Cockroach Catcher in a previous post, in which he says of his background in child psychiatry:

At least a third of the children we saw were not the real patients.
I’m currently a CPN operating out of an outpatient clinic for Child and Adolescent Mental Health [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (6)

More on Emo

May 23, 2008 – 9:33 pm

Following on from my earlier post about emo, I think I’ve give a real-world clinical example, dealing with a self-harming emo kid.
A quick caveat before I do. Teenage self-harming is not an “emo thing”. We see plenty of cutters in CAMHS, and the bulk of them are not emos. Chavs cut themselves too. In fact, [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , | Comments (29)

Parent-ectomy

May 18, 2008 – 8:38 pm

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (8)

Oh no! Emo!

May 16, 2008 – 9:18 pm

Here in our CAMHS clinic, I’ve been having to explain to my colleagues about the differences between chavs, moshers, emos and goths. I’m fairly young (well, early 30s) so they look to me as the expert on what the hip kids are boogieing on down to in groovetown.
Of course, I’m always up for increasing my [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , , | Comments (38)

On the borderline

May 10, 2008 – 8:37 pm

Let’s talk about…borderline personality disorder.
Hey, wait, where are you all going? Come back!
Utter those three fatal words in mental health services, and all the pejoratives come out. Let’s have a roll-call, shall, we? Let’s see, we’ve got “manipulative”, “demanding”, “drain on resources”, “not really a mental illness”…oh yes, and let’s not forget “untreatable”.
Now, let me [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (44)

New addition to my blogroll

May 5, 2008 – 3:50 pm

Via Mental Patient About Town, I’ve come across Dumped by a Hallucination, a blog by a young lady describing her experiences with psychosis.
It’s slightly different from the other blogs we regularly feature in our weekly round-ups, for one reason.
She’s 14.
I think I’ll keep reading this one.

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (10)

ADHD or atrocious parents?

April 14, 2008 – 8:32 pm

Danny is a rather troublesome 9 year old, and his parents are convinced he has ADHD. They know this because he won’t behave himself, so that must mean he has ADHD. They come to us, wanting a diagnosis and medication.
In clinic, Danny isn’t displaying any signs of hyperkinesis or inattention. We get Danny’s parents to [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , | Comments (49)

Extended Roles vs Expanded Roles

April 3, 2008 – 8:10 pm

Wow, E’s post on the NurseQuack debate seems to have stirred up a hornet’s nest. One response from NHS Blog Doctor and two from Dr Rant. Personally, I never even thought it was a particularly pro-NurseQuack post.
I do wonder though, if there’s a middle ground to the NurseQuack debate that’s being left unexplored by two [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , , , | Comments (12)

Parenting

April 3, 2008 – 6:55 pm

A very worried-looking mother brings her 8 year old daughter to us. She’s convinced there’s something mentally wrong with the daughter, and wants to know if she has ADHD.
The daughter, however, doesn’t come across as remotely hyperkinetic in the clinic. In fact she seems very well-behaved. We send for a school report just in case [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (3)

This is shocking, beyond belief..

March 3, 2008 – 4:21 pm

I make no apology for the pun, because quite frankly, this has got to be a joke, right?
Two special education students at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton were wrongfully delivered dozens of punishing electrical shocks in August based on a prank phone call from a former student posing as a supervisor, a [...]

By Mr Ian | Posted in Mental Illness, Passing Connection To Work, Stupidness, Treatment | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

The limits of psychiatry

March 1, 2008 – 3:43 pm

A referral letter comes to CAMHS from the GP. A child is experiencing distress as a result of being bullied at school, and the GP wants us to see the child. At the team meeting, the consultant wonders whether this is really a psychiatric issue or more of a school issue. The letter is handed [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , | Comments (10)

The Bridgend Suicides

February 23, 2008 – 11:57 am

As those of you who have been following the news will know, there’s been a spate of suicides in Bridgend, South Wales. 17 young people have committed suicide, all by hanging. Nearly all of them were not known to mental health services prior to killing themselves. The media seems to be blaming the internet. The [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , , | Comments (10)

Junior Psychopaths

February 8, 2008 – 4:54 pm

One of the “pleasures” (if you can call it that) of child and adolescent mental health is that we get to see the next generation of mental health users growing up. Its a truism of child psychiatry that attachment disorders grow up to become borderline personality disorders, conduct disorders grow up to become antisocial personality [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged , , , | Comments (25)

No more Victoria Climbies?

January 31, 2008 – 9:57 pm

If you ever want a really depressing and upsetting read I suggest a copy of the Victoria Climbie Report. It’s the harrowing and utterly tragic story of how a young girl was slowly tortured to death over a period of months, and how social services, health services and the police could have but did not [...]

By zarathustra | Posted in Passing Connection To Work | Also tagged | Comments (7)