Complications with my autism referral

thank you so much :) i will keep all of these in mind!

If you are really struggling with mental health issues, Housing issues, issues in education and you feel the is need for some sort of intervention then you can contact your local authority for a needs assessment, You don't necessarily need the autism diagnoses but it may help. The needs assessment can result in getting you the support to pursue and diagnosis but also educational support and mental health treatment. 

If you are going through a new GP or Doctors Surgery get the date of the initial referral as it can help you seen faster and not waiting the average two years waiting list. 

When you see a new GP make sure they are not the older male type as they as they often have their own opinion on autism and are less likely to follow through the referral, Highly recommend finding female doctor as they are more likely notice masking, camouflaging and assimilating behaviours.

If you hear the excuse from the doctor " it's the only place in the area that provide the service" their is usually something like a lack of effort on your general practitioners side to finding available services.  

In the UK there is something called the right to choose and i highly recommend using it to avoid Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services who are hazardous for mass incompetence and issues with patients getting lost in the administration system or referal cancelled without informing patients.

I highly recommend that you go through adult autism services or the asperges unit which usually operate in most major cities. 

If you get so frustrated and end up pursuing a private diagnosis make sure it being overseen by a NHS professional and check your local authority accept private diagnosis as evidence of autism spectrum disorder as they may not accept them and prevent or revoke any assistance you may need.    

hi sorry for the late reply had lots on today 

I am in the UK (England based). I am currently awaiting to hear back from my new doctors that I am registered there and then I am getting an appointment to get referred.

Basically, what happened with my old GP back home was that he tried referring me and it got declined so for the past 5 months they were investigating it and that’s what they came back with! They told me to that I should change doctors to make it easier and get uni involved, but uni have literally said that they aren’t providing guidance or anything to do with the referral process, even though they know the stress I have been under AND that things have flagged up that my mental health is bad 

In regards to your other reply, I am 19 and I will be 20 in November. I think I specified in the post that I’ve been trying to sort this since November and it’s honestly becoming more and more hassle for me - I just hope once I am registered here, I will be on a waiting list for an assessment.

Have you got any other tips that would be helpful at all?

ACNH-2001 is over 16   

if you have any questions, just ask i have been in this situation myself. 

Are you in england because typically they require you to go through you General practitioner to be referred to mental health or autism services. If you are going through the free NHS route than unfortunately typically cannot self refer and requires a GP. If you can prove that your General Practitioner is being extremely unhelpful than you can contact the mental health services or adult autism services and explain issues you have been experiences with you GP or doctors surgery and they can override the need for a GP referral but you need evidence such as paper trail or audio recording of session with you GP. 

Ideally you need to find out the date when your doctor made the initial referral, If your doctor did not make a referral you need a written explanation on why they believed they didn't need to look into or make the referral. Often they will charge over £30 of a doctor to write a letter however many doctors surgery will waver this cost if it prevents you from reporting them.Often in this situation the GP will often apologize and to make the effort and look into it because it gross negligence and the doctor is often responsible for mis interpreting or failing to look into age appropriate treatment.

if your doctors surgery still being very hostile you can make a written complaint to the doctors surgery and pursue it with your local health ombudsman.         

If you are under sixteen then your doctor is correct and it has been this way for years across the majority of england. If you are older than sixteen your general practitioner is expected to refer you adult autism services or mental health services depending on your location. I don't understand why you GP has said this as most student services in colleges and universities will often contact your general practitioner with your permission and raise concerns to pursue an autism diagnosis.

I have to wait for my doctors to be swapped over so I can self refer through the uni as they don’t provide official counselling only support through the mental health team

how would I look into that? I didn’t even know self-referring for autism was a thing, but it would make things so much easier if it is!

Does your uni not have a counselling service? I had counselling at my uni some years ago and I didnt need to go via my gp. NHS counselling waiting lists are high and in my experience they try to get you to do things like CBT instead (which I hate personally). 

I also just self-referred to the autism service in my area. Have you found them directly online to see if this is possible where you are? 

I’ve got a learning plan in place and that’s it but there’s literally little to no support with the referral or any guidance 

i am surprised at your uni because there is nothing to prevent u self declaring as "Autistic" which then should give u access to the support needed. But everything is not as it should be sometimes

exactly! it’s so frustrating, especially when no progress has been made

and all u want is to be diagnosed

thank you so much! honestly when my (old) GP said it, I was confused because how are adults, who aren’t in education, meant to get referred? then I thought it could just be my local home area, but then why would he have said the NHS have said it? It would be across the country :/

it’s such a mess because I haven’t been referred properly and have to get re-referred at the new doctors when I could’ve  been on a waiting list the past 5 months 

this is news to me, i will have a poke around and reply if I find anything

ACNH-2001 said:

I have been told that autism referrals/autism related issues (according to my old GP) have been changed by the NHS to an educational issue.