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Lack of post diagnostic adult assessment as standard practice (legal obligation) and support post diagnosis

IrishInManchesterUK

I’m wondering what people’s thoughts are on the issue of post-diagnostic autism assessment, as a basic standard practice for both adults and children alike, which should be a legal obligation for those tasked with diagnosing autism, in both private and public health settings, in respect of both adults and children with autism - without a post diagnostic assessment, one has no idea what one’s support needs are and therefore there is no way to legally enforce one’s entitlements to have reasonable adjustments put in place, for example in employment - we are totally reliant and dependent on the goodwill of charities to provide the support that we need which should be a legal requirement within a legal framework and as certain basic minimum standards that are legally enforceable - autism experts should be brought in to help design proper support and assessment as well as helping to draft laws that will force society to properly provide for us by properly having support structures in place, the proper implementation of which will be backed up by force of law - current laws are simply not good enough and given the statistics, this situation is even more unacceptable - aside from campaigns for increased funding, campaigns for legislative change should be launched 

  • in reply to Autonomistic

    Worse they promissed to do it then went back on their word.

  • The NAS do campaign for legislative change. They recently campaigned for changes to the Mental Health Act to include introducing a legal duty for councils to provide enough of the right community services to prevent autistic people from reaching crisis point. If implemented that would have been a good step in the right direction. However the government chose to ignore the campaign Disappointed

    https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/34107/petition-for-wrongful-detention

    https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/campaign/mental-health/time-to-act

  • If mental health services started to recognise what is looking at them right in front of them, the inicators and "symptoms" of ASD, then wouldnt that save a lot of time and money? Instead, they diagnose some mental health condition and hand out prescriptions. This goes on and on. Backwards and forwards, symptoms dont improve, they get worse, change medication.....medical proffesionals are not following nice guidlines. They are depriving people of the right to make sense of "what is wrong" with them. Recognising autism early would help people accept, this is how it is, there is no cure and this is what i need to do to take care of myself. Those breakdowns that i have, they are not breakdiwns they are meltdowns and i dont have a mental illness. The funds wasted on these types of consultations, referrals and prescriptions could be better used to increase post diagnosis support. Is it really that difficult to figure out what is happening here? 

  • well for one the people who diagnosed you cannot be held accountable to provide you with support, because if you noticed they are very busy and you have around a 4 to 8 year waiting que for diagnosis which is growing and growing none stop. their work is too much.... do you think they also then have the time to support personally each one they gave a diagnosis to? nope, they are having to rush through a never ending waiting que onto the next and the next and the next.

    they are unable to provide support as they are busy doing diagnosis for millions of people.

    as for the reasonable adjustments, you could trigger reasonable adjustments by getting any sick note, get a sick note for stress or depression and they have to offer reasonable adjustments.... although if there is none they can do or none they want to do they dont actually have to offer exactly what you wanted. it all depends if the employer is willing to play ball on it with you or not. went through this myself, my own gp said that i can request reasonable adjustments but they dont actually have to go along with them or accept my request. 

  • Ok what I'm about to say will only really apply to great britain, the equality act doesn't cover northen irland atm afaik. As things stand you have a right to reasonable adjustments in employment, education, services and public functions even if you don't have a diagnosis. the law cares about whether you have a disability not a formal diagnosis. Now in practice in court everything requires evidence and a formal diagnosis is the best evidence of disability. Having a second report saying what your suport needs are would be useful in a court, but it's not legaly binding on the court or your employer. Creating a law requiring post diagnostic reports wouldn't automaticly avoid court cases unless you also passed a law making them legaly binding in some sence. Also these things are situational. The resonable adjustments for an office job would be difrent than for a supermarket or for a school or a student club. It's probably not fesable to write one report that covers all eventualities.

    Now what could be done is to make occupational heath assesments a right. Right now if you go to your employer / educational institution and say I have disability X, the good ones, will orgonise an assesment to determen what reasonable adjustments you need, often done by an external body. It would be fesable to make that a legal right, to have an assement done by an acedited external body, if you have a diagnosis.