Discharge

A discharge letter can land hard: it reads as if the service has decided your child no longer needs help. Often that is not what happened. Services discharge for many reasons, including missed appointments, a completed piece of work, a waiting list waiting list The queue for a specialist assessment once your referral has been accepted. Waits for autism and ADHD assessments are long in much of the UK. Read the full definition of waiting list rule, a decision that your child's needs sit with a different team, or simple lack of capacity. You might see it written as discharged back to GP GP Your family doctor. For many families the GP is the first person to talk to, and the person who refers your child on to a specialist. Read the full definition of GP , case closed, or closed to the service.

Being discharged does not mean your concerns were wrong, and it does not stop you asking for help again. You can ask the service why your child was discharged and what they recommend next, and your GP, health visitor Health visitor A health visitor is a nurse or midwife with extra training who works with families from pregnancy until a child turns five. They do the development reviews and you can contact them directly. Read the full definition of Health visitor or school can refer again if things have not improved or have changed. Keep the letter: it is evidence of what the service found and when.