Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all I'm new here and am waiting for a diagnosis. Just wondering if anyone else had the same problems I experienced getting to this stage.
I went to see my gp armed with a printout of the baron-cohen Aspergers test (scored 42/50). And told my gp I wanted to be referred. I was then told 'the NHS don't refer adults' (I am 37). I argued my point and told her that my suspicions of possibly having some form of autism were affecting my work and home life. She read through my test results and agreed to refer me although said that it may be rejected due to my age. This was 3 months ago. I have been chasing this on a regular basis and have been told numerous times that everything is fine and the referral has been made only to now find out it has gone to the wrong service and now has to start all over again. Have anyone else come across barriers from the NHS?
I approached GP to ask for a referal. I saw a registrar so she had to ask the senior GP's how to proceed. They responded with "there is no adult autism service in Norfolk and there's no point getting a diagnosis as an adult anyway.
I am not happy. I am taking it further and I WILL get the referal and assessment I feel I need and deserve.
Mmmmm I don’t know where my comment went
What I said was something like this ~ where I worked, in the Lake District, we had no adult autism team and we had to refer people to a team in Newcastle, which would not only take years, for the referral to be acted on, but once we made that referral, we couldn’t continue working with our clients so it was always a difficult choice to make as to whether we continued to support them or we made the referral. It was pretty heart breaking, for all of us, and neither option was ideal and I know that in Norfolk they struggle for resources as well. I turned a job down in Norfolk due to their lack of resources. It’s not their fault. They’re doing their best but with the way that mental health teams etc fund themselves now, they don’t always have enough money left over to fund an autism team, based on the needs of the people in their area. So you are still entitled to an assessment, but you may need to be referred to an out of area team. But yes, you are still entitled to one, absolutely and most non autistic people, can’t understand why an assessment is so important to us but in truth, how could they? The benefits of a diagnosis, from an autistic person’s perspective, isn’t taught to them and we’re almost like the first wave of adults coming forward en mass asking for assessments, so I think they’re getting a bit overwhelmed by it all and the gp’s will have been told, that even if a diagnosis is given, there’s no support but there is other support. I got my first support via our local social services and my second support worker is from Autism Plus and I’m not sure, but maybe you can assess their support without a diagnosis. I started asking for support before I had my diagnosis.