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What happens at a diagnosis assessment?

SarJakittenwizard

On Monday I received a text saying that my referral was accepted which I'm guessing means at some point I'll get a phone call or letter telling me when and where it'll happen, but I just wanted to know what would happen at the assessment. I guess it'll be asking me questions, but what else? I get quite nervous and I'd just like to know what will happen next. Also the message I received said that they couldn't give me an estimated wait time for an assessment to take place, but in you experiences, how long did it take?  Also, another question, where did it take place for you? Did it take place at a local GP or hospital or did it take place in a specific place such as a specific hospital in a city or something. I know all of your replies might vary but it'd be nice to know what your experiences might have been like.

  • in reply to Cloud44

    One of the tasks was to take pieces of different coloured shapes, about the size of lego bricks, out of a box and place them within an outline of a large shape. There were a few other variants of that task, and tasks requiring me to describe objects and images. 

  • My assessment involved an interview giving my general mental health and history. She asked a lot of questions and it was mostly a matter of giving factual information, although she did coax out details about some stuff that I didn't think was tied to mental health - eg about school friends, relationships etc.

    The next part involved a separate structured interview, which focused a lot on early years. I'd talked to my mum ahead of it to get her recollections and done a lot of thinking about what I remembered from playgroup, nursery school and infant/junior school. I did run a lot of my remembrances via my mum too, to ensure I wasn't imagining things! Fact finding on everything from your mother's pregnancy and birth experience onwards would be useful unless you have a caregiver attending the assessment with you.

    There were some questions about present day, what I do now and how I approach things. Also some ad hoc questions that threw me like about how I view/react to certain social interactions. It felt like these may have been asked to fill in blanks from childhood memories, but that's just my impression.

    It was via video call and the report (draft version as I'm still waiting for the final copy) included observations e.g. it noted I did some rocking back and forth while on the call, which I hadn't even realised I was doing.

    It was split over two calls, totaling  about 4.5 to 5 hrs across both appointments. The structured nature of the questions made it a lot easier than talking to mental health people, who are usually very vague and generalised in their approach. It also seemed to be skewed towards facts and evidence, rather than observation based.

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    Just curious what sort of tasks you had to do, I didn't have to do any but the process has changed (I was assessed under old criteria) so I'm also interested in what happens these days.

  • It’s good that you got acknowledgement of your referral. You just have to be yourself during an autism assessment - I know that can be easier said than done, especially if you have various emotions around the possibility that you are autistic. 

    I was referred by my GP for an NHS assessment, but the waiting list was over 4 years in N. Ireland so I had my assessment at a private clinic that specialised in autism assessment. The NHS assessments where I live, take place at an adult autism clinic at a hospital The assessment took place over three separate appointments. The first part was a developmental history gathering exercise which was undertaken by a Clinical Pschologist. He asked lots of questions about the past and the present. The second and third parts were conducted by a specialist Occupational Therapist who had been trained to assess adults according to the accepted NICE guidelines. I was asked questions, we had a conversation on several different topics and I was observed doing set tasks. There are no right or wrong answers. At the end of the process I was told that I was autistic and this was followed up by a written diagnosis of autism and a detailed report of my strengths and challenges. I also had two more follow up appointments to discuss the findings.

  • Different assessment providers approach the process in different ways, so it's not possible to say with certainty whether your experience would be the same as mine, for example.

    Waiting times can also vary a lot. Within the NHS, it might take several years, whereas if you're using a private provider accessed via Right to Choose (an option that's available in England), these might typically have shorter waiting times - but still often several months.

    You might find the advice here helpful:

    NAS - What happens during an autism assessment

    There's also further advice here about:

    • Criteria and tools used in an autism assessment
    • Professionals involved in an autism assessment
    • What can I do while waiting for an autism assessment

    NAS - Assessment and diagnosis