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Autism and Right To Choose.

Alex

Hello Forum, 

My apologises for this post. I am a little lost and confused around the right to choose scheme in the UK, regarding autistic diagnosis. 

I'll provide some back story to provide context. I have been under various mental health teams for the past 6 years, and was under Coventry and Warwickshire's waiting list for an autism diagnosis. 1 year ago,  I moved to Staffordshire and have been told I will have to start from scratch with my diagnosis pathway. 

I have been referred to, and am in contact with AAA, a Black Country and Staffordshire based provider for diagnosis but haven't been given a time frame for my assessment.

Prior to this, I was informed by my initial assessor in Coventry to self diagnose, due to numerous reasons and including my aq50 score of 43/50. I even scored 43/50 on my aq50 for AAA black country and Staffordshire. 

I've been waiting near 6 years for a diagnosis now and really struggle socially, finding work and feel like my life hasn't moved on in the last few years. would anyone have any support or guidance for me? 

Specifically on whether autistic diagnosis can make use of the right to choose scheme in the UK. I don't think I can wait another 6 years as I'm pretty much homeless and jobless as it is. 

Thank you for your time in reading my question. 

Kind regards,

Alex

Parents

  • Hi Alex, Sorry to hear all about this but hopefully some of these resources can be helpful (some might be things you have encountered before but thought might I would give them to you just in case):

    This on is about information about autism spectrum disorders: 
    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism 

    If you were interested in finding out if you are on the autism spectrum, you would need to have a formal diagnostic assessment. You may find it useful to have a look at the following link for further information about diagnosis and the benefits of getting one: 

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis  

    Furthermore, it is important the professional you see has experience of autism spectrum disorders. You can find details of diagnostic services on our Autism Services Directory in the Assessment and diagnosis section: http://www.autism.org.uk/directory.aspx 

    For your questions on employment here are some other resources:

    The British Association of Supported Employment, who have a database of supported employment agencies, so you can search for one in your local area: www.base-uk.org 

    Remploy, an organisation which supports people with disabilities and those experiencing complex barriers to work, into mainstream employment: www.remploy.co.uk 

    https://myplusstudentsclub.com/ is also a good website to look at. It is a site on which employers advertise their opportunities for people with disabilities and they also provide information about disability and inclusive practices within their organisations. This is a good way to identify companies which will be keen to put in place reasonable adjustments for interviews and throughout employment. 

     I have also included a link to our job-page –https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/work-for-us . Within this page you can click on our job and volunteering page to find out about our current employment and volunteering opportunities with The National Autistic Society. We particularly welcome applications from autistic people. 

     Volunteering can often be a good way to gain relevant experience and skills for future employment. Your local volunteer centre may be able to assist with finding a volunteer placement. You can search for volunteer placements on https://do-it.org/ 

    Finally, you can find more information about seeking a job, and about your rights in work here: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/employment 

    Hope this helps!

    SarahMod

  • in reply to SarahMod

    Hi Sarah. I appreciate that this seems to be a copy+paste of information that might be relevant, but the person was specificallya sking about Right to Choose. This is what I am also wanting to find out about, and why I googled and found this link. I think it would be etreely helpful for a lot of people to have more information on your website about Right to Choose and which providers can be accessed through it, because realistically this is the only way that most people can get an assessment in a reasonable timeframe in the UK. To just provide links to lots of private providers wtihout indicating which ones the non-rich can actually access is not very helpful to most of us.
    Kind regards,
    Caleb Day.

    PS: To anyone else reading this, I have so far found two providers that can be accessed through Right to Choose:
    1) Axia https://axia-asd.co.uk/clarification-of-right-to-choose-applications-to-axia/
    2) Psychiatry UK https://psychiatry-uk.com/right-to-choose/

    Axia seems promising because they do not take a deficit-based approach but a strength-based approach, so I am pursuing them at the moment, but not sure what their wait times are, which is why I am trying to find other providers that can be accessed through Right to Choose.

Reply
  • in reply to SarahMod

    Hi Sarah. I appreciate that this seems to be a copy+paste of information that might be relevant, but the person was specificallya sking about Right to Choose. This is what I am also wanting to find out about, and why I googled and found this link. I think it would be etreely helpful for a lot of people to have more information on your website about Right to Choose and which providers can be accessed through it, because realistically this is the only way that most people can get an assessment in a reasonable timeframe in the UK. To just provide links to lots of private providers wtihout indicating which ones the non-rich can actually access is not very helpful to most of us.
    Kind regards,
    Caleb Day.

    PS: To anyone else reading this, I have so far found two providers that can be accessed through Right to Choose:
    1) Axia https://axia-asd.co.uk/clarification-of-right-to-choose-applications-to-axia/
    2) Psychiatry UK https://psychiatry-uk.com/right-to-choose/

    Axia seems promising because they do not take a deficit-based approach but a strength-based approach, so I am pursuing them at the moment, but not sure what their wait times are, which is why I am trying to find other providers that can be accessed through Right to Choose.

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