Preparing for Online triage appointment

Hello Fibonacci Squid

That sounds quite a thorough triage assessment of it’s for 60 minutes and includes two interviews!

I went to a diagnostic appt a month before lockdown so it was face 2 face.

Mine was the same format you describe: an interview with two people. One was an assistant psychologist, the other was a chartered clinical psychologist.

The first conversation was structured  around what I had told the service about myself in terms of my autistic traits (whatever I’d had to complete to describe my difficulties)

***NOTE: I took copies of what I had submitted as my evidence about myself  so I could refer to it if needed***

I would have felt unprepared and even more anxious had I not brought that with me. My short term memory is so poor I hate being without my notes and references (aka external memory)

I was asked to go into a little more depth for her to understand my challenges, she also asked me questions about certain situations. Some of these were real eye openers to me as they indicated more autistic ways I hadn’t even realised were ‘autisms’

The second interview was with the senior clinician. Honestly, I don’t remember much about it really. She might have described the key traits and explained how I demonstrated them??? I think she asked me what made me annoyed? Or what people did that caused me annoyance? She did ask me how I felt about being diagnosed. Anyway, I was told there and then given a certificate signed by her so I could use that as evidence of my diagnosis pending the full report coming out.

I was soooo anxious before I went in. Fortunately I did get good information about the location and instructions for the day. I viewed the location on Google maps beforehand to plan where I would park and cycle (I was commuting with my bike on the back of the car at the time so that I could cycle part of the way for exercise)

I got there early enough to check out where it was first then went to get a cuppa before going in (I had to go back and ask for milk! Flippin’ cafés: so many unwritten rules and they all do things differently!!!)

I was also anxious about them thinking I was a fraud and wasn’t sure how to behave on the day.

In the full report they referred to the way I engaged in conversation and my tone - things I had not even realised were being assessed.

I then left the building or rather I tried to leave the building, several times. I couldn’t open the door to get out and, feeling like a complete pillock, had to go back up several flights of stairs to ask the security guy to let me out !!! I think he was a bit stunned but was sympathetic obviously knowing the kind of clients which attended his work place

I must write in with that story to the ‘Adrift’ podcast….have a listen if you haven’t already. Lots of stories about social ineptitude

Thanks that's really helpful and comforting to know, I've already started making notes on the reasons and issues that led me to seek assessment but I think it's a bit much so I might try and prioritize a bit or at least rank them,

Thanks that's really helpful and comforting to know, I've already started making notes on the reasons and issues that led me to seek assessment but I think it's a bit much so I might try and prioritize a bit or at least rank them,