Published on 12, July, 2020
So, if you aren't all bored with me banging on about this topic yet, here's another call for opinion.
In my quest to secure some proper support to get through my own GPs doors nevermind survive hospital treatment, it seems I have secured a meeting with the Comissioners for Coventry and Warwickshirs Partnership Trust to talk about improving the offer for autistic people. (Currently this sucks, simply because no one can wrap their heads around the issues). I'm not imagininging this is a local problem at all. The problems are likely the same nationwide.
In this meeting, I'll be banging on about my own barriers, of course, but this isn't just my issue, is it? I am no more than just one example, or case study, here.
So, what do you want your local trust to offer you to better access your health care? I'll take all your ideas forward with me to that meeting.
Training for all medical proffessionals and staff on recognising the signs for undiagnosed autism would be a good start. For example, an individual repeatedly turning up at the surgery struggling to make sense of why they feel the way they do and repeated prescription for antidepressants not helping.....please ask them to look at the obvious to eliminate autism before mis diagnosing. Please ask them to read the nice guidlines x
Definitely needed.
It is only when reading my GP notes sent with the request for an autism assessment, that I realised how many flags there were for autism and how seriously I had been misdiagnosed over the last 30 or so years, not just by GPs but by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
They also all need training in what interventions might be effective.
I was also misdiagnosed by a lot of people, including several psychiatrists, psychologists, GPs, etc and across 3 countries- UK, Germany and Luxembourg. I was even inpatient for 8 weeks with lots of therapy sessions where I expressed how 'different' I felt etc. and noone realised. At school noone noticed either, probably as I was doing well academically.