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Adult autism diagnostic services not universal in the UK?

Jenny Butterfly

Following on from a query that arose in the Futurelearn Understanding Autism course (which I'm enjoying for the second time now), I'm wondering if there are still areas in the Uk that have no diagnostic services. 

i found this on the NAS website - "In 2009, most areas in England didn’t have an adult diagnosis service. Now almost all (93%) do."  Is that figure still current and does that mean there are still 7% of areas in England which have nothing?  I'm shocked.  What are people in these areas supposed to do?  Does anyone here live in such an area?

Parents

  • Hi, birmingham (second largest city in the U.K.!) has no adult autism service. 

    I am self-diagnosed. All they could do was refer me to the adult ADHD service, im waiting for an appointment. They have told me 'they will test for autism' but I don't believe them. 

  • in reply to Yasmyn

    That doesn't appear to be true if that's what you've been told. There's SPARC which covers Birmingham (but does involve local authorities having to approve funding). There's also some more local services around Birmingham, such as one in Solihull.

    Also, sometimes diagnostic pathways are integrated rather than specialist based (i.e. you get referred through standard mental health pathways rather than to a specialist autism service). But I don't think it's unusual for GPs to not really know where they can refer people.

    Maybe contact the ADHD people if you've not heard from them directly (you don't make it clear who said they will test for autism) and get some clarification, and if you're not going to get what you need out of it, you could ask your GP for a referral to SPARC.

  • in reply to Boating_taxonomist

    Thank you so much for this yes my GP told me that there was no service avalible and that the ADHD team will test for autism. 

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