Recommendations for private autism diagnosis

Hi Davey and welcome to the community!

One issue to be aware of when considering using a private assessment provider is whether your daughter's GP, local authority (and perhaps others) will recognise the diagnosis. The NAS advises:

"some people may experience difficulties with having their non-NHS diagnosis accepted by local authority and NHS health services; before deciding to go ahead with a non-NHS diagnosis, it is a good idea to check whether this will be accepted in your area." 

From: NAS - How to request an autism assessment - Can I have a private assessment?

As some other members here have suggested, following the Right to Choose pathway from NHS England can still result in a much quicker assessment than going / staying on an NHS waiting list.

In order to be available via this pathway, private providers must already be providing the same service to the NHS somewhere in England (ie compared with being private only).

There are now quite a few of these NHS-approved providers to choose from for autism assessments.

More information here:

NAS - What is Right to Choose?

Example list of providers

Myself and my son were both privately assessed and diagnosed through the https://internationalcliniclondon.com/home/contact/ the whole process took 3 months start to finish after waiting for over 2 years through the NHS

Hi David, thank you for sharing with the online community. To find diagnostic services in your local area, you can try searching on our Autism Services Directory, which can be found here.

Best wishes,

Anna Mod

Hi Clarissa, sorry to hijack your comment. Just to add any extra info about SEIK.

I just did my second assessment with SEIK and they were really great. Very professional, calm and open about the process which was very helpful for me. 

There were some forms to complete which you do through a series of online portals which don't work well on a mobile phone, just in case you needed to do that. I haven't received my report yet but was told that I will meet the diagnosis criteria which was great because otherwise I would have been going out of my mind wondering about the result while I waited.

I attended both assessments with my partner who has known me for 6 years - I think this was just above the cut off point for how long the person must have known you. 

The assessments were both done remotely - they recommend that the person accompanying you sits in the same room as you for the meeting if possible. Each appointment has 90 minutes booked in, the first one I used the full time and then a little more, the second I didn't use as much but I felt it was a good amount of time and wasn't rushed ever.

They can also accept and review your own notes and things like reports or videos from school if you feel it will help illustrate things but note that if you submit these before the assessment there is a reading charge, if your assessor asks for them or agrees to read them in the assessment then there is no charge so I waited and asked the assessor if they would like me to send them through which he agreed to and I sent them after the session. 

I'd really recommend them and the whole process went from first contacting them to final assessment in less than a month which was ideal.

I think that the primary problem that causes the ridiculously long NHS adult autism assessment backlogs are the methods in use, which seem to be essentially based on the approach that is necessary for diagnosing children. This is also the most long-winded and expensive approach, which is largely reliant on observation and testing by a whole team of clinicians. The vast majority of autistic adults are capable of describing their traits, problems and history. The need for extensive observation and extensive testing does not exist for assessing most adults, after all the majority of autistic people are of average or above average intelligence. The official NICE guidelines state that the minimum for a valid adult autism diagnosis is one suitably qualified clinician (specifically a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist or neurologist) with specialist training in autism. If the NHS adopted this approach for assessing adults without intellectual disability the waiting lists would relatively quickly become reasonable.

Instead, the NHS funds commercial providers to do single clinician assessments for them through the 'Right to Choose' scheme, which is quite an unnecessarily expensive option for the public purse, not to mention being plain stupid.

That's so good! Congratulations! You may have some wobbles in the time to come, so do stick around. This is a start of a journey, not an end in my experience.

I got my diagnosis, and I feel 71 years young. For me, it really makes a difference. The psychiatrist was lovely (youngish and female) and explained everything very clearly.

Now I would definitely recommend SEIK Psychiatry (of course!)

I used the right to choose process and a company called problem shared earlier this year, I only waited a couple of months for the assessment and it was done via video calls so I didn't have to travel somewhere new

I like the new profile picture, Clarissa! I am looking forward to hearing how you got on.

I’m being assessed by SEIK Psychiatry. They are reasonably priced (£650) and so far have been very professional and also very supportive. I had my first interview two weeks ago with a psychologist using the DISCO diagnostic test. He gave me extra time because I was talking so much! He told me I scored highly, ie likely to receive a diagnosis of autism. My second interview is tomorrow with a psychiatrist. Both interviews need you to attend with a family member or close friend who has known you over the years, but not necessarily from childhood. I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes, but so far I would definitely recommend SEIK

If she is still offering the same services, I would unreservedly recommend Sara Heath from Shropshire Autonomy (https://shropshireautonomy.co.uk/) as a possible assessment route for your daughter. You should be able to search the community posts here and see that others have also previously recommended her too. Sara is a non-medical Autism expert who previously worked privately with an NHS psychiatrist in order to provide a fairly low-cost full diagnosis route. I say "previously" because her website has been updated since I used her services and it is not clear whether she still provides the full diagnosis route or just pre-diagnosis. When I used her services, Sara did a pre-assessment before referring me to the psychiatrist, so it worked out considerably cheaper than some other private providers. She will only refer you to the psychiatrist if she is confident that there is enough evidence for a medical diagnosis. I used her for my diagnosis a couple of years ago (age 50) and have no regrets whatsoever. I think it was about 3 months from my first contact with her to full diagnosis. I would recommend contacting Sara directly to see if she would still be able help your daughter with a full diagnosis, Please let me know if you have any questions. 

mcgeownconsultancy.com/

Mind to mind therapies were amazing. I was a human being to them. 

Thanks but we need to go private as time against her for what she plans to do. 

Hi there,

I went through NHS right to chose via Psychiatry UK, if you google it it will come up. I had to complete a self report questionnaire and then take a template letter (from the website) to my GP and ask him to refer to them. In total the whole process took 9 months. In between then I was sent forms to complete both myself and a family member to support the assessment.

obviously private will be quicker but this is also another option . Hope this helps.