Emotional support

lou86

Hi
My daughter who is 9 has a progressive muscle disorder which requires her to use a wheelchair and wear AFOs day and night - still undiagnosed after 6 years of tests.
She is suffering emotionally and is really down, she is expressing self hatred a lot and has secluded herself from her friends at school and is usually by herself. I feel she really needs counselling of some sort to help her process what is happening to her but the school are fobbing me off saying it will cost over 1k to get her what she needs. 
Does anyone have any advice on who i can contact to get her the help she needs before this gets any worse?

thank you

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @lou86, I cannot imagine how tough it is for you and your daughter right now, it must be difficult to hear her say those things about herself.

Does your daughter have a Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)? I was just wondering what support was outlined on there if she did have one. If this isn't the case then I would look into getting one as it could allow her to access more support in school and become beneficial in the future. Here is some information about the EHCP process.  

I know she might be too young, but here is some information about talking about your impairment and the social model of disability. 

If you are worried about your daughter feeling down then you can make a referral to the Child and Adolescence Mental Health Service (CAMHS) where they can offer counselling or other forms of therapy.

If you need anything else then please do let us know.

lou86

Thank you Chloe_Scope
I really appreciate you advice, no she doesn't have an EHCP plan, i will have a look into it. She has only just had a care plan done (which is very basic) as the school nurse and SENCO didn't have a clue about her extra needs.
I think she would benefit from some sort of therapy as she has told me that she doesn't like to tell me how she is feeling cause she doesn't want to upset me. so i always make a point to ask her questions and tell it that things won't upset me and i only want to make her feel better

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @lou86, not a problem at all! An EHCP is very similar to a care plan, but it's much more in depth and needs to be followed by law. It also is something that can be implicated at high school and can stay with her (and be changed to suit her needs) until she is 25 years old.

If there is anything else we can do then please do let us know, we'd love to hear how you both get on.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @lou86
Chloe is right in suggesting the EHCP

An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

You can ask your local authority to carry out an assessment if you think your child needs an EHC plan.