Hi There,
My wife was told as a young girl (13) that she was Dysphasic, no official diagnosis but this was given as a reason for the many issues she had and has continued to have to the present day. She also suffers with Depression often brought on by the difficulties she has with 'life in relation to what we thought was her Dyspraxia'. In recent years she began to research her difficulties to try and understand her issues, as a result, she has slowly come to the conclusion that she may well be autistic. Knowing her as I do, I am aware that she tends to latch onto things as a way of explaining why she is as she is and initially I resisted the notion that she was autistic While I accepted that many of her traits bore all the hallmarks of Autism, I was concerned that she may be chasing rainbows and would only be disappointed if things turned out to not be the way she wanted them to be.
However, in trying to be supportive, I did my own research and came to the conclusion that she is almost certainly autistic. We approached our G.P who is exceptional and has supported her for many years for a referral for a diagnosis. Having complete an A10 form, she has received an offer of an Assessment from our local ASD Clinic but they have stated the wait could be a few years as they have a considerable backlog of people to see.
Consequently, we have been exploring the Private Diagnosis route and have found someone we would be happy to have do the assessment. This is pretty expensive and it will be a task to find the money to pay for the Assessment but we are prepared to do it if it will provide the answers she seeks. An issue we have is that she also receives PIP and is soon due an Assessment for that.
The question is, can anyone tell me, if the DWP will accept a Private Diagnosis, I ask because a relative with two Autistic Grandchildren has told me that DWP will not accept Private Diagnoses.
Sorry to ramble on but any feed back would be helpful
