Published on 12, July, 2020
After years of suspecting that I am autistic, I have just this morning been referred for assessment by my GP.
My son was diagnosed a few years back, and my GP agreed with me that I also exhibit many traits,. and said that he thinks a diagnosis would be helpful for me.
I live in the north of England, and have been referred to a centre in Sheffield for assessment. This would be on the NHS, but my GP explained that the waiting list could be really long for this. He also gave me information about a local service which do private assessments, where I could be seen much sooner.
Does anyone have any experience of using the NHS service based in Sheffield, and what are your experiences of it? How long is the waiting list likely to be, and what did you feel about the diagnostic process?
Also, what are people's experiences of private assessments versus NHS?
Any ideas or advice would be helpful.
Hi,I'm now 52 and approached my GP for a diagnosis 13 months ago. Staffordshire does not have an adult diagnostic service so I was referred to one in an adjoining county. I had to wait 7 months before seeing the psychiatrist who would assess me. The process they use is 3x one hour interviews. The first was last May then a huge wait for the other two in Sept. I thought I would be given the results at the end of the 3rd session but alas I was told this was just the information gathering phase and he would have to go off and analise the results. He said this would take 4 - 6 weeks however it is now 9 1/2 weeks and I'm still waiting... which I am finding very stressful!I dont know if there is any link up with NHS services in Sheffiled but Sheffield University do quite a bit of autism research and have a youtube channel with several interesting videos of talks by people on the spectrum and professionals...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEGHUlDW9SbkGX0duzJ5tvg Hope thats of some help?