Published on 12, July, 2020
So several months after see my GP and filling out all the paper work I finally get a response. I'm told that I have been accepted for a referral, but this will be "at least 20 months". I think I would have gone insane before then. Then Covid hits, so 20 months for a face to face is more like 3 years. Then I hear about Healios on here. So I ask my GP to be referred there instead. Again, fill out the forms! Then yesterday my GP told me that Berkshire NHS don't refer adults to the service!
I'm now 45, this whole thing is hard enough as it is, and like a lot of people on here, I have been pushed around the system for 20 years. Told I have anxiety, let's treat that, you have depression, let's treat treat. You finally end up with something that feels real and I can relate to and I have to wait 3 years to even find out if it's true this time.
I'm so upset, I really don't know what to do. Not only does the decision feel like age discrimination, but it makes me feel so unimportant in the world it's hard not to think "what's the point"
The people I was referred to were Hampshire & Surrey Psychology. In fact my assessment was done just outside Reading and Basingstoke.
www.hampshirepsychology.co.uk/
My timeline was referred to a Private Psychiatrist in Southampton by my GP in February 2019. Saw the Psychiatrist in May. Got then referred to H&SP for full assessment with initial consultation in July (referral got lost!). Assessment and more consultations in August and final diagnosis and report early September.
Psychiatrist consultation was for 1:45hr and cost £350. Initial consultation with H&SP cost £275 and full assessment was £1750.
I should point out, that when I saw my GP, I didn't even suggest the possibility of Aspergers (my son was diagnosed with it). But my anxiety was getting worse as I got older (should get less anxious as you get older). It was the Psychiatrist who read all the notes I had written, who said he was 95% sure that I too had Aspergers and suggested the full assessment - the main reason being that I institutions eg my workplace would need the full assessment to make my diagnosis official.
I now have that diagnosis on my medical records and a Autism alert card from Hampshire Autism- they needed my reports to issue me with the alert card.
So the whole process for me started in December 2018 with my GP visit. By February 2019, my GP had given up on the NHS route and I said I would like to go private. This took 8 months but included 12 weeks of not hearing anything because of the missing referral (I should have chased it earlier).
Thanks I’ll look into this.