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Countdown to diagnosis

Sunflower

Hi everyone, 

I've been undergoing autism assessment by a team of Clinical Psychologists for the last few weeks.  I hear the outcome later today.

I am a woman in my late 50s and the component parts of my ASD assessment are as follows:

  • Initial assessment with psychologist (1.5 hrs)
  • Full developmental history meeting with psychologist (1.5 hrs)
  • AQ / EQ questionnaires (completed at home and handed back to psychologist) 
  • Developmental history (written autobiographical information supplied by me)
  • Developmental history questionnaires (completed by parents/siblings & emailed to psychologist)  
  • Narrative account of issues and challenges (emailed by husband)
  • ADOS-2  with two different psychologists (1 hr) followed by analysis of results (1 hr)
  • Multi-disciplinary Formulation Meeting (professionals only) 
  • Feedback meeting - psychologist + me (1 hr) 
  • Post assessment follow-up sessions - optional (3 x 1 hr)

I first emailed the service provider requesting information on 10 August. 

The Formulation Meeting will be held sometime next week (mid November). This is where everyone in the team gets together to consider all the evidence and reach conclusions about likely causes of difficulties, and potentially helpful recommendations. 

I will get feedback from a psychologist at a meeting next Friday 16 November. 

Although I am paying for this assessment privately, the provider re-invests any profit into providing services for autistic people.

I looked up 'formulation' and it seems this is a psycho-social group decision-making process, combining narrative accounts with evidence derived from the application of ASD diagnostic criteria. This approach aims to reduce the risk of individual bias by promoting creative thinking and collaborative problem solving.  

Needless to say I am looking forward to finding out what diagnostic decision has been reached. It will be fascinating to see if the professionals agree with the conclusions I reached by reading, reflecting, and talking to people in this community!

There are varied formats for assessment so it would be interesting to know what other people's experiences have been. 

Parents

  • I hope it goes well for you today

    and thanks for the advice that you have given me recently. It has really helped me

    James

  • in reply to PINARELLO F8

    Hi James,

    So glad it has been useful. To be honest I do not know how I would have got through the last few weeks without support from people in this community. Nice to know I'm contributing too.

    It's a strange feeling to have had all this information about my life gathered and analysed. I kept wanting to tell the psychologists more and more, even when they said they already knew enough! 

    In some ways an ASD diagnosis wouldn't really change much at all. My supportive manager will still be supportive and my mean manager will still be mean. But I might be a bit clearer about what is going on for me. I might also find it easier to avoid certain situations and perhaps be a bit kinder and gentler with myself. 

    I have always made myself do things that are really hard for me. Not to do so made me feel like I was just being a wimp. If there is some objective, externally verified reason for those things being particularly hard for me, it is going to change the way I look at life. 

    Hope you are OK. The waiting is really tough I know. I skipped my lip reading class today because I couldn't face going out of the house. Chatting to people on here is a much better way of letting the time tick by.

    I really appreciate your message.

    Thank you so much for thinking of me.  

    Rose 

  • in reply to Sunflower

    Whatever happens today just remember.........

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