Did you receive your Autism diagnosis at the same time as your assessment or was there a wait in-between?

Hi all, 

So I had an assessment last week and was told I'd have a separate session to find out the results of the assessment verbally before the report is compiled and issued.

I just wondered, did you folks find out straight away or (if there was a wait in between) how long was the wait between assessment and finding out?

I don't want to push them as I know they are busy and I'm not the only person they need to assess, but equally, I'm so desperate to find out and finally get some answers - especially before some big changes happen in my life, so I can (attempt) to seek support during the changes.

  • Thank you ever so much for this - it is very reassuring! I ended up calling them and (very nervously) asking when I could expect to hear. They gave me a similar indication to what you have - i.e. I should hear back a couple of weeks after the last assessment. It sounds like we've been through very similar stages so hopefully I will keep to a similar timescale. I was just a bit lost because the last assessment felt very rushed and we ran out of time so I had no opportunity to add anything or ask questions otherwise I'd have tried to find out then. 

    Thanks again for your reply, it's been very helpful :) 

  • Hi there, I was in the same situation as you when I got my diagnosis :) I went through all the stages of the assessment, and at the end of the last one (the entire assessment was conducted remotely, maybe it's different if you had it in person), they told me it would take them a couple of weeks to review the recordings, their notes, confer, and agree on a diagnosis. After a couple of weeks, I had a final appointment, where one of the clinicians who assessed me told me the diagnosis and told me more about how they had reached their conclusions etc. Then there was some more wait to get the written report, but it was just before Christmas, they were overworked - I received the written report three weeks after that final appointment (which is not bad at all, judging by some of the replies I see here). It might very well depend on where you are and how overworked they are (my assessment was done in Yorkshire). 

    If you have any doubts or anxieties, by all means feel free to reach out to them, I did it too because they had said "a few days" initially, and I got worried when days turned into weeks, and they were great at communicating and giving me an updated timescale of when to expect the final assessment / the final report / the post-diagnosis support group. Best of luck with all of it, you're almost there!

  • There was a wait in between of several weeks.  This was in addition to the initial wait for the start of the assessment process and a couple of months between each of the stages.  When I phoned up they said that they didn't give out results over the phone so I was left with no choice but to wait.  This was in County Durham and it might be different in other areas though. 

  • There was about a year's wait in between the video call with my assessment and the video call on which I received my diagnosis. It's now 7 months later and I've still not received my full report, and my doctors surgery hasn't received the diagnosis yet.

  • Thank you for the reassurance. I will try to speak to them tomorrow.

  • Nah, they are just over worked. They won't be annoyed. They'll get you are anxious, like everybody else. But they ought to give you a time scale.

  • Thanks for the quick reply. I think I may have to call them as you suggest.

    Up to now, I have only emailed them (I'm not a fan of phone calls!) and they were very quick to arrange appointments but as soon as I've asked when to expect to hear back they seem to be ignoring me - perhaps I have annoyed them!

  • Bless you. The wait must be awful.

    I found out on the day, but that was the NAS own diagnostic centre not the NHS. 

    I think it's ok to ring and ask when you can expect to hear something. I would.