Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi All. A few years ago I was seeing a psychiatrist for depression, and one of the mental health nurses who assessed me before seeing the psychiatrist thought some of the things I was saying sounded like autistic traits. I was given two questionnaires to complete to assess the autistic traits; one came back positive and one negative. I found the questionnaires very difficult to complete as I find my thoughts and feelings very confusing and has to understand. As I was mostly seeing him for the depression it was sort of left there as a semi diagnosis of possibly a bit autistic. Fast forward to now, and my current counsellor has helped me to try to explore my thoughts/feelings and why I struggle to understand myself. We both feel that a better diagnosis and more robust understanding of what is going on would help. I also have a 6 month old daughter, and my partner wants to understand how she and my daughter in the future could best understand/support me.
Can I ask how a formal autistic assessment works? What can I expect, either in terms of waiting on the nhs or cost privately, and at the actual assessment? Do they need to observe me? How definitive can they be if I am not sure myself if my thoughts/feelings?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any advice you may have.
I’ve seen both types of assessment.
NHS has a 12-24 month waiting list. The assessment consists of endless questions, and you’ll be asked to perform several tasks and then there’s a developmental interview as well. You may or may not get a second appointment. If you do, it’s usually more questions.
Privately the wait time is short. Some assess exactly the same as the NHS standard. Some go above and beyond to get a picture of you in your entirety. Prices range from £1500-£1900.
In the case of my daughter, she had several sessions. The consult, psychometric testing session, questionnaires, an interview, I had questionnaires, she had further testing for Dyspraxia and Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, and then we both attended the developmental interview where we were told she did have ASD, and had our final meeting on the phone to discuss findings and the report. I thought it was very thorough. Especially since we could keep sending him stuff and lists, and asking questions through email when we wanted. (Not everyone is like this though).He was precise with questioning. Like, instead of ‘can you tell if your mum is upset’ (which was asked in her NHS assessment, and she said yes), he asked ‘How can you tell if your mum is upset’. If you don’t ask questions the right way, you’re not going to get the right answer.