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Seeking an autism assessment

Goldfinch

Hi everyone,

After some months of reflection (and some useful advice from this forum), I have decided to start the ball rolling on an assessment by visiting the GP for an initial chat.

I've done all the online tests which register autism, and feel now is the right time to seek some support.

The GP didn't say too much, only asking a couple of questions, and asked for me to refer myself via Right to Choose and come back to her to 'sign off' the referral. I was under the impression I was to be referred by the GP?

I'm now incredibly confused and overwhelmed about where to start, or to even begin looking at Right to Choose providers.

Advice on this website recommends comparing local providers, including the all-important waiting lists before deciding. I'm not entirely sure where to look for any of this.

I believe there may be other more complicated elements to my diagnosis, such as potentially OCPD, so I'm keen to seek somewhere that will be able to dig further into this as well.

I know this may vary a lot, but does anyone have any idea of average waiting lists?

If I could find the money to go private, how much would this roughly cost, and would this effectively eliminate the waiting list to be seen almost immediately?

Many thanks.

Parents

  • The NHS route was not really viable because the waiting list up here (Glasgow) is several years long. Given my age (71), I decided I might not live that long, so I chose to go private back in January. I was able to get a preliminary appointment with my chosen provider within about a fortnight. The final stage of my assessment is due to take place next week (the delay was because I had a heart attack a few days after that preliminary meeting). In my case, the cost was just shy of £2000, which seems fairly typical for Glasgow-based providers.

    As for how I chose my provider, I have to confess to having made use of AI (specifically Perplexity). I set it up to sift through all the publicly available information about providers in the Glasgow area with two main criteria: I wanted a provider that was sympathetic to the neurodivergence paradigm of autism and one that was experienced in dealing with older clients who might not have an informant who was familiar with their childhood. What it gave me was a report comparing the various providers and two or three recommendations based on my criteria.

  • in reply to Wordsmith

    I’m so sorry to hear about your heart attack. I hope that you are on the mend. 

    thank you for your reply. It seems £2,000 is around the going rate for private from what I can see. 
    I’ve dabbled with AI a bit to get my head around it, with very mixed results ( as with anything AI!)

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