Children's DLA - No Official Diagnosis

Hi All,

Apologies if this ends up being a duplicated post, I think the page might have timed out when I previously tried to post, and apologies for the length of the post.

Our daughter (9) has been struggling with her mental health over the last few years (anxiety, depression, and potentially an emerging personality disorder - not officially diagnosed, but I recognise the signs/patterns from caring for family members with similar conditions). Recently it's been getting worse and she is self-harming (superficially at the moment, but I don't want to wait for this to progress), struggling with sleep, having panic attacks at home and school, is becoming increasingly reluctant to leave the house (even to go toy shopping with grandparents), and her emotions drain her to the point of exhaustion. We seem to keep going in circles with the NHS, being referred to services that aren't equipped to diagnose and treat mental illness (they seem to mostly be geared towards children with temporary issues like exam stresses, falling out with friends etc. as opposed to long-term mental illness). Feedback I have received so far seems to suggest that as she isn't an immediate threat to herself or others, she can't get any other help than is currently being offered.

We're coming to the conclusion that to get her the help she actually needs we may need to go private, but we cannot afford the costs. This is where I have been considering applying for DLA to at least partially cover the costs. The issue I have is that we have no official medical diagnosis as we can't seem to get her referred to anyone that is able to diagnose her via the NHS (and a private children's assessment appears to cost £540 upwards).

I could probably get a statement from the School briefly describing her difficulties there, and adjustments they have made to make life there more manageable, and may be able to get the GP to confirm what I've reported to them, and where they have referred her.

I suppose my main question is, is there any point in even applying for DLA without any form of official diagnosis, or is this wasting everyone's time? I'm really unsure as to how much weight our anecdotal evidence will carry in absence of this.

Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated, and apologies again for the length of the post!

Thanks in advance,
Chris.