Published on 12, July, 2020
Obviously the cheapest option would be appealing, but I would also want to make sure any diagnosis is "official" in the eyes of my employer and I guess the NHS. I do have private medical insurance with work,but assume it wouldn't cover something I was potentially born with.
Ideally would want somewhere 1k or under. I would prefer my parents not have to attend in person as they live far from me.
Does anyone have any recommendations please? I am 33F if that matters.
In what area do you live? Do your research on psychologists and other medical professionals claiming to be suitable to assess. As someone mentioned, some have or still work for the NHS. Just like everything you get what you pay for in my opinion. My brother was recently assessed and diagnosed privately. The report that he has recieved following his assessment, is very helpful and provides reccomendations to consider x
My GP’s entire contribution to my mental health journey was to ask me a handful of very blunt questions about it whether I was likely to harm myself imminently. With that done they sent me on my way with no help at all. GPs are useless now.
Yes they did
Is there a particular qualification they need? Are there any right to choose services still taking assesment requests? Thanks
Did they pass on your diagnosis to your GP?
My GP doesn't really field helpful questions, they are at max capacity referring people to 111
The validity of a diagnosis rests on the qualifications of the clinician or clinicians doing the assessment. If you use a private provider who is registered with the NHS, and especially if the NHS uses them for 'Right to Choose' referrals (where the NHS pays for a private provider to make assessments), then you should be fine with a diagnosis being valid.
I was diagnosed this year by the nhs - I waited 2 years for the assessment. It varies a lot area by area. Have you asked your GP about the situation locally?
I did this a few months ago with one of the companies listed on the NAS website. The practitioners also work for the NHS and listed all the criteria and assessment types they perform. I had done a lot of research and they seemed very thorough.
They did an initial assessment that was basically a two hour interview and charged £250 for that. The purpose of this was to save me the cost of a full assessment if was readily apparent I wasn’t autistic.
After that was completed I proceeded to the full assessment over three days at a further cost of £1850, so a total cost of £2100.
I am confident from my research that they were very thorough and it was also further comfort that they were listed on the NAS website.