ADHD: Private clinics exposed by BBC undercover investigation

Dawn said:

Don't let it doubt your ASC status if you feel comfortable that it's right. Doubt only if you don't feel it genuinely fits.

That said, I'd have doubts about an assessment that took no more than an hour. Mine was a full day, following the submission of a big fat bundle of old school reports, questionnaires from my mother, my one questionnaires, old dyslexia diagnoses and MH correspondence.

They need all that to be confident in making a diagnosis in many cases. 

Hi Dawn.

I'd appreciate it if you could explain what type of cases require all the documentation you speak of above (+ a whole day assessment).

My assessment consisted of the RAADS questionnaire + some others + 2 one hour online interviews so I'm doubting now from what you say and obviously from this documentary, that these were sufficient to make a reliable diagnosis.

Thank you.

Dawn said:

Don't let it doubt your ASC status if you feel comfortable that it's right. Doubt only if you don't feel it genuinely fits.

That said, I'd have doubts about an assessment that took no more than an hour. Mine was a full day, following the submission of a big fat bundle of old school reports, questionnaires from my mother, my one questionnaires, old dyslexia diagnoses and MH correspondence.

They need all that to be confident in making a diagnosis in many cases. 

Hi Dawn.

I'd appreciate it if you could explain what type of cases require all the documentation you speak of above (+ a whole day assessment).

My assessment consisted of the RAADS questionnaire + some others + 2 one hour online interviews so I'm doubting now from what you say and obviously from this documentary, that these were sufficient to make a reliable diagnosis.

Thank you.

Just a thought but if you happened to have a less experienced phsyciatrist or one that had only seen a narrow range of autistic expression up until that point in their career they might need to do more tests, and a longer assessment just to be sure. Speed could just as likely be indicative of a seasoned professional that just knew what they were looking at in you and didn't feel like inconveniencing you with more hoop jumping when they were already really confident about the results regardless.

You wouldn't necessarily need things like old school reports or input from family members. I didn't, because I was able to provide lots of information about my own experiences, and I'm fairly high-masking so input from other people wouldn't really be helpful anyway.

My appointments lasted a total of six hours, though this did include the RAADS-R questionnaire and a family history, both of which could be done on your own. The other appointment was two hours, so about the same as yours were in total.

I think that as long as a knowledgeable assessor has been able to observe you and hear about how you experience the world, that's the most important thing. It sounds like you did actually provide a lot of information, which suggests that things were sufficiently thorough for a valid diagnosis.

It entirely depends on the clinical qualification and specialisms of the person or persons who diagnosed you, nothing else. As has been pointed out, extensive assessments over several days, carried out on the NHS, can still give incorrect diagnoses, if the clinicians carrying out the assessment are not fully qualified to do so, or have outdated or stereotypical ideas of what autism is. I imagine that you gave an extensive written history of your traits and experiences, that whoever diagnosed you would have read. This, for adults, is a far more accurate way of assessing autism than any amount of testing or observation.

I was privately diagnosed by a consultant psychiatrist who formerly worked for the NHS and after that was Clinical Director for Developmental Disorders for The Priory Group in the UK, I have no doubts that he was qualified to diagnose autism.