Service Detail

SCAAND provides a multi-disciplinary team who work closely together to ensure that the mental health (emotional and behavioural) needs of the child and their family are assessed and managed in a comprehensive manner. Service development and delivery are undertaken in close partnership with children and young people, their families and colleagues from community services, including community mental health services, paediatrics, social care and education. Typically, young people referred to SCAAND will have already accessed care and support via the appropriate local (community CAMHS or Paediatrics) autism pathway and SCAAND will review existing information to inform our specialist assessments and care.

A comment on language:

This webpage should be a useful source of information for anyone who may come into contact with SCAAND. However, the language used to refer to autism varies from person to person. In clinical practice, we  ask service users what their preferences are. For this webpage, we use the term ‘autism’ and use person-first language (e.g. young person on the autism spectrum).

Our clinical pathways are described below.

SCAAND aims to meet the needs of young people with a range of neurodevelopmental presentations. All young people referred to SCAAND will be allocated to an appropriate assessment pathway or allocated for consultation to the professional network. Following these first contacts, if indicated, the young person and their family will be allocated to an intervention pathway. SCAAND has different funding routes, which are described under the Care Options tab.

Examples of presenting difficulties for young people seen in SCAAND:

• lack of diagnostic certainty (whether the young person has autism or a co-occurring condition) despite the local assessment pathway being accessed
• Very withdrawn and isolated young people on the autism spectrum
• Severely distressed young people with neurodevelopmental difficulties
• Aggressive or self injurious behaviours in young people with intellectual disability
• Young people out of education due to mental health (emotions or behaviour)
• Anxiety and selective mutism
• All young people with Prader-Willi Syndrome in the UK
• Young people with neurodevelopmental diagnosis and additional symptoms that cannot eb explained by a physical condition (e.g. non-epileptic seizures)
• Cognitive, emotional or behavioural difficulties in the context of neurological conditions

This section outlines some of the main assessment and intervention pathways.

ASSESSMENT PATHWAYS

• Specialist Multi-Disciplinary Assessment: SCAAND provides tailored assessments from our multi-disciplinary teams to address referrals about diagnostic uncertainty and differential diagnosis as well as co-occurring conditions. Examples include assessment of social communication where clinicians remain unclear if the young person has autism after initial assessment (for example due to emotional or behavioural difficulties, disruption to care in early life, selective mutism); assessment of co-occurring conditions in young people with recognised Intellectual Disabilities, or where neurodevelopmental symptoms or impairments are less obvious (for example in girls and young women, or in non-verbal young people)
• Second Opinion Assessment: Where local professionals feel that a routine second opinion neurodevelopmental assessment is indicated (for example due to subtle symptoms or impairments being increasingly apparent over time), we offer a streamlined second opinion pathway to re-assess neurodevelopmental diagnoses (including autism, ADHD, Intellectual Disability)
• Prader-Willi Service (PWS) assessment: This service provides multi-disciplinary assessment for young people with confirmed diagnosis of PWS of all cognitive abilities and behavioural or mental health problems associated with PWS, including autism, ADHD, anxiety, psychosis and hyperphagia.
• Sensory Assessment & Recommendations: There is an increasing focus on the importance of the sensory differences and experience of autistic young people, and SCAAND has a team of occupational therapists trained in sensory integration, who are able to complete sensory and motor assessments with young people and their families, with the aim of developing a set of recommendations. Sensory Assessments are increasingly recommended by CETR (Care Education and Treatment Reviews) for autistic young people, and this is one trigger for a referral to our Sensory Assessment pathway.
• Assessment of Mental Capacity and Competence: SCAAND offers assessment of mental capacity and competency of young people with intellectual disability.

CONSULTATION TO PROFESSIONALS

• Consultation to Professionals: Where young people have identified needs and there is an existing professional network in place, SCAAND can offer a consultation to professionals to support local care planning and decision making, as well as to consider whether further specialist intervention directly from SCAAND is indicated.
• Consultation may be provided as a one-off contact, or when indicated as appropriate, the assessment or intervention pathways may be activated within SCAAND

INTERVENTION PATHWAYS

• Specialist Multi-disciplinary Intervention: MDT interventions are available from Psychiatry (e.g. medication), Psychology and behaviour support (e.g. adapted Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, parent/carer consultations on behaviour management), Occupational Therapy (e.g. intervention to increase participation and meaningful occupation, sensory informed interventions), Speech and Language Therapy (selective mutism intervention, emotional literacy skills), Intellectual Disability Nursing and Education (advice and support). Young people seen in SCAAND may be considered for group interventions for young people and parents. Please see the Interventions tab for more detail.
• Psychoeducation Group for Girls with Autism: This includes a group for young people and a parallel parent group is facilitated alongside the Girls’ Group to enhance parental understanding of autism in their girls. Referrals are accepted from SLAM Boroughs (Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark) and other National Specialist CAMHS teams for a psychoeducation group focusing on specific information about autism in girls.

If this was not what you were looking for:

This page relates to the outpatient service to for young people who have varied and multiple difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental conditions across England.

We work closed with the AID-IIT service, who provide intensive and outreach support for young people (resident in Greater London) at imminent risk of CAMHS inpatient admission: Autism and Intellectual Disability – Intensive Intervention Team (AID-IIT)