Published on 12, July, 2020
Hey guys!
I find myself here again looking for advice.
I was referred for an Ausmtism assessment back in July, was sent some forms in August... and finally heard back a few days ago saying that, although I'm "clearly struggling in some areas, [they] don't think I need an assessment at this time." Despite having sent a whole other document full of traits, that I feel point towards me being Autistic, as I couldn't fit everything on the form. Apparently my form didn't show *enough* traits...
I feel quite downhearted, and like I've been completely dismissed. I've don't a lot of reading up about Autism over this year, and I don't think I'm wrong in this.. too much of my life experiences now make sense under this lens for me to want to just let it go...
I have put in for a 2nd opinion, but my appointment isn't until mid January...
I've never had to do this before...
And I'm worried that it'll just get me nowhere again, though I'm gonna keep trying... the message my doctor sent when suggesting a 2nd opinion said about maybe looking privately... would they refer me for such for free, or do I have to pay in that case?
Has anyone else been through similar?
What did you do in the end?
Sorry to hear that you've been denied am assessment - I have been through similar, but managed to get assessed and diagnosed a couple of months ago.
What happened with me is that initially my GP sent the referral forms for me to fill in on my own with no help from the GP.I was already in a pretty bad place in terms of ongoing physical & mental health problems and just couldn't even start to fill the forms in, so just forgot about it.
I was known to / under the care of local adult mental health and one of the support workers sat down with me to go through the forms. She was absolutely useless - was unable to offer any contect around each of the questions. In fact I got the impression that it was the first time she'd seen any of the forms**The froms were sunbmitted the ASD team and promptly rejected.
Some months later after another mental health issue, a different support worker offered to go through the forms with me. This time I was fortunate that he knew what he was talking about and took his time walking though it with me. TBH, I wasn't expecting to be accepted for assessment (after the first knock back), but fortunately they did accept this time.
Could you ask for help with the forms?
** Having been involved with local mental health services for several years (as a patient) it seems that the vast majority of staff are pretty much useless. That is unless your talking about qualified psychiatrists / psychologists. The support staff are probably not very qualiified and are on minimal salaries, so I guess its a case of if you pay peanuts then you get monkeys!
That could be an option, but at this point I'm not too sure I trust my current GP practice knows enough about it overall to give me much help. When I initially called to start the process, the doctor I spoke to was awful; told me it's impossible because my parents didn't show concerns, and because I'm doing "well" in life (husband, job, etc).. how "he's the doctor, and he's been trained so he knows what he's doing!". It's only because I had a list of traits prepared to help me in the first place, that I got anywhere.
I did wonder a bit today if, maybe because I've not been to the doctors before about my mental health, I've no trail of sorts to show that I've has struggles for a long time. But that's only because I was too embarrassed in the first place, and I cannot verbalise my struggles well, I do better when I can write it out... but then also worry that because I've not been taken seriously for physical ailments in the past they certainly won't with mental health stuff that I can't prove..
I found that overall I could fill the forms out OK, I gave a lot of detail in most areas. More so than my friend/husband gave on theirs..