Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, all
So, as you may or may not have seen from previous posts made by me, I’m currently on the waiting list for ASD assessment, following a good 3 years of trying to determine if I actually am autistic, and so far, 1.5 years on the waiting list, with a projected 1.5 years minimum left to go until someone actually assesses me.
Life has started to move on pretty quickly for me; I’ve just gotten a part-time job, and I’ll be moving to university in the near future too, and while some people and services are accommodating of the fact that I am not diagnosed yet, it’s becoming a severe roadblock. Reasonable adjustments, Disabled Students Allowance, being allowed to bring my car to university so I can go home if I need to so I can keep familiar surroundings, routines and people around me, I can access none of that without a diagnosis. And, quite frankly, my lack of diagnosis simply isn’t enough; me saying that ‘I’m on the waiting list’ just isn’t enough anymore.
There’s the private diagnosis route, but there isn’t the money for that. There’s numbers we can ring to say ‘this is situation is getting worse’ to the local authority service that I’m currently with, but I’m currently being transitioned from child to adult services, and thus don’t have a contact point. Which leads me to Psychiatry U.K (which would also require an additional step of getting a GP to also see that I have ASD, as we went the self-referral route)
To those who have used Psychiatry UK, what was it like? How does it work, is it mainly online based or is it in person? How long was the wait, do you regret using them or would happily exalt their praises?
I’m willing to try almost anything at this rate
Hello I have just gone through the process of getting diagnosed through Psychiatry UK, so hopefully my experience could be of some value to you. First of all, yes, you will need to get a referral via a GP. I firstly spoke to a GP about this over a telephone consultation and they invited me to a face to face appointment to discuss it further. It's at this point that they spoke to me about the 'right to choose' and that going through Psychiatry UK would be much quicker that the traditional referral method through the local authority. Part of me feels quite lucky that I had a relatively new GP who clearly listened to my needs and wasn't dismissive. I'd try and get an appointment with a GP who you either already know or has a good background around mental health and neurodiversity. The GP submitted the referral and I also submitted a supporting letter of why I thought I had autism and why I was seeking a diagnosis. About 6 weeks after that, I received and email inviting me to join their online portal. At this point I had to submit various documents before they could progress the referral any further. This was: - An online test which I had to answer several questions. This gave a 'likelihood' that I experienced many autism symptoms.
- A large document of questions where I had to answer very personal questions about my whole life, from my mothers pregnancy right through to the present day. They ask for as much information as possible (e.g. school records if you have them).
- A similar large document of similar questions, but completed by a close family member or spouse. I then waited about another 6 weeks at which point I got a call inviting me to have an assessment via zoom. I think I was quite lucky and there was an opening due to a cancellation and got an assessment booked in for 3 weeks time. The assessment was completed by a clinical doctor and a specialist practitioner nurse who specialized in autism. There were around 15 minutes of questions based around my general health, upbringing and mental health history before the nurse practitioner spent 45 minutes asking me all kinds of questions around my childhood through to adult life.
They did say that the assessments can take up to 2 hours but because I provided some much supporting documentation, they only needed one hour. By the end of the one hour they were in a position to diagnose me with Autism. At this point they sent a letter to myself and the GP (took about 3 weeks) confirming my diagnosis with an very detailed overview of the assessment. Within the letter they recommend what treatments or therapies should be provided. I am now at the point where my GP has spoken to me about the diagnosis and I am waiting for the mental health team to get back to me on my options as it's been recommended that I have talking therapy with a specialized therapist in autism, as well as CBT. It's at this point though where I have no idea on the NHS waiting times for these services or if the only quick way to access these would be to go private. For me though, just having the diagnosis is a huge step forwards for me :) Hope this helps,Andy
What do you mean by clinical Dr?
Same for me. NHS offers nothing. The only useful thing of that letter is that you can use it if you have problems at work, or to qualify for Workplace Adjustments. You can also give it to a private practitioner if you want to set thing straight with him before starting. For all the rest, it is wholly useless.