Struggling to express and write information needed to submit for an assessment

Hi Everyone,

I was hoping someone would be able to help me/send me in the right direction to get help with this.

After years of thinking I’m Neurodivergent, I finally picked up the courage to ask my G.P. to refer me for an assessment.

The doctor said I had to submit information to a patient email address and it would be forwarded on. Autism waiting times for assessment are apparently nearly 3 years in Scotland. Anyone done private assessment ( if so, was it expensive and do you recommend it?)

The doctor drew me a diagram with Child, school, adult along with parents and emphasised how it impacts my function. I’m struggling to think how to word things and I’ve been procrastinating for weeks by putting it off. It honestly feels so overwhelming to start as I thought an assessment would just be someone talking to me about things and discussing my issues- but writing them down seems really difficult for some reason. 

Someone recommended I just use bullet points to express things? I also don’t have any school reports (+ I’ve been out of school for years so no chance of getting them). 

Thank you for reading this, hopefully someone can help me

  • Link in my email below, embrace-autism.com

  • Thanks for your reply. 

    Would you be able to reply with the link for the AQ50 so I know it’s the right one to do please? Just found out the one for my assessment on a different website signed me up for a subscription which I wasn’t aware of. 

    she basically just listed two columns with me in one and parents in other, then going down it was like childhood, school, adult life and then she just wrote the word function and underlined it.

    it kinda took me back a bit because she didn’t really ask me anything about why I think I have autism but just said to me to do this and send it in to a patient email address for the surgery.

    I legit thought they would just refer and I’d speak to someone who would do an assessment, so it’s kinda thrown me having to write it down and it’s been overwhelming me to the point where I’m constantly putting it off

  • Good advice from Stuart333 the Aq10 or 50 , are well known and should be enough.  They'll probably be what the service who'll screen you prior to doing a full assessment would use anyway.

    Not sure what the Doc was drawing tbh

  • The main one the NHS use for screening is a the AQ test, which has 50 questions. There is short 10 question version, but use the 50 questions one. They should recognise that.

    https://embrace-autism.com/

    There are other tests you can do if want to. The EQ may help your submission too 

    The others may help you  to understand you yourself , e.g. RAADS-R and the masking one.

    They can help you to be more sure. They may also highlight some other items you would like to mention.

  • Thank you , Stuart. I didn’t know about the tests online. I’ve just done one and my score was 194/240- anything above 144 is said to highlight autistic traits. I think I’ll send them a copy of that assessment like you said to help highlight it. Thanks for your help! 

  • Thank you so Much for getting back to me Anna, I’ll have a look.

  • If I understand correctly, this is not part of the assessment, the doctor wants you to send them some info to justify why you should be referred to be put on the waiting list.

    This is why there are no forms or specific questions.

    It does not seem very helpful, and it is not clear. I would have thought the GP should write the justification for referring you based on what you tell them.

    I think they want some points about how you are affected now and how you were affected in the past at school, plus what problems do you have. It should be basically the reasons why you went to the GP.

    It seems a bit odd, as this is what the assessment is for.

    I would go with a bullet list.

    Can you use the AQ--50 test as evidence? It is the main screening test. Above 32 is clinically significant issues.

  • Hi  , congratulations on starting your diagnosis journey. Our website has a diagnosis hub https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis. This includes information and practical and multimedia resources to support before and during diagnosis.

    You can try searching on our Autism Services Directory https://www.autism.org.uk/autism-services-directory for diagnostic services in your local area.

    I hope these help!

    Best wishes,

    Anna Mod