Ms Emer Deasy:

Certain psychology services would be useful, as would emotional support around counselling and behavioural therapies with emotional regulation. Many young children, whether they are neurodivergent or neurotypical, will experience that. A significant amount can be done in that regard in addition to medication. Medication is a game-changer for many children, as many of our members would attest, but one does not know how a drug will react in a child's system until one tries it. A parent could spend up to 12 months trying to get the drug right to suit his or her child. There is chopping and changing of drugs, in an uncontrolled manner in some cases, as we outlined. Parents are managing this at home and struggling to get any oversight from CAMHS in so doing. The parent of a child who has been put onto new medication may try to access support from CAMHS but be unable to get through. As the child does not have a caseworker, there is nobody dedicated to follow up on his or her transition between medications. Some parents in our group have had to wean children off very strong medication on their own. One parent outlined to us that she was looking up on the Internet how to wean her child off these really strong medications. It is dangerous.