Private Diagnosis - what type of assessor?

Today it was confirmed that the waiting time for my NHS assessment is going to be 20+ months. So I’m back to looking at a private assessment again.

I was wondering if anyone could offer an opinion on private assessments and the best person to be assessed by?

I have found two routes fairly local to me:

1 - A mental health therapist who is an accredited autism assessor who uses the ADI-R and the ADOS (found this person on my local Autism recommendations directory)

2- A Chartered clinical psychologist who uses DISCO and ADOS-2 (this particular psychologist is recommended by someone on this forum)

How do I know which route to take? Are all assessments valid when trying to access support (whether that be DLA, or therapy etc)

As they are private I dont want to spend money and then find it’s not an accepted diagnosis from a therapist for example? (If I am diagnosed that is) Or because they both have autism assessment training does it make any difference? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Parents
  • There is a lot of urban myth that private diagnoses are not recognized by the NHS.

    I have not found this to be so, in fact NICE guidelines state that no one should be discriminated against because of having private diagnoses or private treatment.

    Obviously someone should be qualified for the diagnosis but someone advertising that they are qualified will be so, otherwise they will face penalties of the law for fraud.  Find out beforehand by asking questions,!if they want your!custom they will not be evasive.  Añd there are lists on this site of those who work privately.

Reply
  • There is a lot of urban myth that private diagnoses are not recognized by the NHS.

    I have not found this to be so, in fact NICE guidelines state that no one should be discriminated against because of having private diagnoses or private treatment.

    Obviously someone should be qualified for the diagnosis but someone advertising that they are qualified will be so, otherwise they will face penalties of the law for fraud.  Find out beforehand by asking questions,!if they want your!custom they will not be evasive.  Añd there are lists on this site of those who work privately.

Children