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Diagnosis process started

Golf23

Today I spoke to my GP who has agreed to refer me, I was informed that the waiting time was 2-3 years. The GP was quite candid as well and said that the waits are unacceptable.

I am just wondering what the next stages are and people's experiences?

  • Hi Golf,

    Welcome :) I was put on the waiting list following my GP referral in April, and was similarly quoted up to 2 years.

    After a few weeks of thought I decided I didn't want to wait and I opted to go private. I was diagnosed around the beginning of this month. 

    It's a personal decision of course and factors such as finances will need to be considered, but there's lots of information on this website regarding options and input from the community.

    Best of luck. 

    Sam

  • My experience is that you and/or your doctor would in the next few months receive a letter from the autism assessment centre either accepting or rejecting your referral. It may also include a questionnaire for you to fill in and send back.

    Assuming you're accepted, the next step for a lot of centres is a triage assessment, which may be a year or more from referral or may be as short as sixth months or less (this is how they're trying to meet NHS targets because technically the main thing they're assessed on is referral to first contact not referral to definite diagnosis or not). 

    If they decide at triage assessment that you need a full assessment, the wait in-between may be several years. That wait is currently the stage I'm in :) Every time I re-contact them, they move the goal posts even further so I'm not sure when it will end but it will definitely be longer than 2 years. 

    If you need any more immediate help, start looking for other avenues as a stop gap, this will take a while.