under 12 inpatient?

[Bord]

My 11 year old has been referred for inpatient treatment for his contamination OCD. He only developed it in February but it rapidly spread to the point where he stopped eating and drinking. Through huge effort on our part he is eating and drinking well with much ritual and rules. Our local CAMHs are unable to help/engage him in therapy and he refuses medication. He was doing quite well in being happyish until last week when he has taken a downward turn, and is just about housebound and refuses to go out, unless extremely motivated, e.g. he will visit relaitves who he loves. But now he is pretty distressed. So we agreed to the referall. However the only under 12 inpatient unit for Scotland is in GLasgow. I have very mixed feelings. SO far my contact with the unit has been very positive and I visit it next week.  I worry that they have had few OCD cases, they had four patients over six years (info in a review). It is a small unit, and I understand it will be a great opportunity for him to get intensive therapy not just around his OCD but also anxiety. But he will be so traumatised at being away from home. I am lookig to see if other parents have had to use similar inpatient units and have any advice on what I should ask, especially around OCD expertise given that they do not deal with OCD regularly. Due to our location outreach support and intensive home therapy is not available.

[Ashley]

I am afraid there are hardly any specialist clinics for children with OCD across the entire UK.  I believe the Priory in London accepts children through referrals with the OCD children's clinic at the Maudsley.

That in itself is not a problem if the clinic in Glasgow that your son is referred to have a therapist with not just knowledge of OCD, but in providing intensive treatment for children with OCD.  So I guess what I am saying is the clinic itself not having much experience in treating OCD is not a problem, provided they have an individual doctor that does have the experience in treating children with severe OCD.  So that's the question to ask I guess.

3 minutes ago, Bord said:

Due to our location outreach support and intensive home therapy is not available.

That's not necessarily the case. I see you're in Scotland. I know Prof Salkovskis when he was at the Bath OCD clinic he did intensive work with an adult in Aberdeen. I think he would go and do a couple of days therapy work and then a few days via Skype before going back up a few weeks later. He's now moved to Oxford and they will offer outreach treatment too.

I don't know if the Dundee AIS clinic for adults with OCD offer anything for children?  

Hopefully other forum users may be able to share something of help in Scotland. If you don't get any joy I can try and find out from my Scottish contacts if they know of anything other than the Glasgow service.

 

 

[Bord]

Thank you Ashley, when I visit on Wednesday I will ask them who their expert is with this experience. 

WRT outreach support, our camhs team will not visit the home for therapy and outreach support could come from the unit but we are too far away from the unit for this.

I considered skyping therapy but our camhs refused this, and quite honestly I do not think it would work for him. His aunt has been skyping him English lessons as he is off school, and after ten skypes he is only just now starting to show his face to her.

I also considered a private therapist, but I do not think he would go, his fear of contamination from other people is too great.

Someone coming to the house I think would work,  but it would have to be at least two or three times a week to make impact on him. I would much prefer to take him as an outpatient or have intensive home therapy, but so far I have drawn blanks.

ALso at the moment we have weeks before he is 12, once he is 12 he would have to go to a unit with teenagers. That would not be good for him. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.