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Older adult assessment delays

NAS95352

Im 68 so I've been waiting a long time to get to within a year of diagnosis then I get a letter telling me that funding has been diverted to childrens services and my long wait is now extended by at least 3 years expecting to get longer as they are reduce the child list. 

As a self identifying autistic person I find this change really difficult to process. I agree that they should work on reducing child waiting list but as I'm in wales there's no RTC and as a pensioner I'm unable to self fund, I'm already self funding therapy to help manage the wait, it will have to stop soon. 

Ive found it really hard to access services, mostly medical, I need especially due to not being able to use the phone. Ive tried advocasy services which havent made a difference, I was hoping that a diagnosis would enable me to access services specific to autistic people. I have been triaged and its deemed approptiate to fully assess. 

My questions are will a diagnosis actually make any difference or am I just wasting time and money. 

Im a carer of a nurodivergent teen and this gets harder as I get older and communication skills deteriate along with executive functioning skills. 

Is there another alternative or do I have to accept not knowing and find other ways to get support for me and my lad as he reaches adulthood. 

Any advice gratefully received

  • Hey, that sounds pretty hard. 

    You post has many sides to it, assessment delays can be very long, but I think it can be still worth hanging on, though probably treat it as something that might happen eventually and try not to think too much or the waiting would be harder. There are a lot of other older autistic people here who have pointed out the importance of having it offically on your records.


    As to services, I don't think there are a lot. You can try searching, the offical NAS pages have a directoy of services for example, and if you find some, quite often you don't need the paper to get the help as a self-identifying is valid.  It's just there isn't a lot of help for adults, i am in Scotland so I don't know what you might find in Wales. It would be nice if you found a group that you could both go to for support!

    The biggest help has been talking on here to like minded people who can support each other and understand your experiences. I mean I really relate with difficulties with using phones. I didn't know anyone else had this trouble before, but suddenly speaking here it's not so odd to find it tricky. That can be healing and reasurring too and provide a way forward, along with sharing tips on coping stratagies.

    I wish you well!