Hello - and question re diagnosis for a child under Right to Choose

Hello

I used the Right to Choose pathway in Hampshire, I just went to my GP and said I wanted to use it and they sent me an option of 2 providers, Psicon and Clinical Partners. At that time, Psicon had a waitiing time of 6-9 months and Clinical Partners 3-6 months. However, as completely new to the concept of ASD and not knowing what the future might hold for my son, I chose to use Psicon on the basis that if in the future he should need medication they are able to "medically titrate" (which I had to try and find out what it meant - basically I think it means they can prescibe medication) wheras Clinical Partners cannot.

In fact the waiting time was considerably shorter, as having fiilled in the questionnaires (which have quite a short time to return) from both us and his school, we only waited 2 months before receiving a phonecall from Psicon saying they had a cancellation, could we bring my son to Basingstoke for the initial assessment in 3 days time. Of course I pulled all strings to make that happen and now, just 4 weeks later we have had a zoom call with another doctor and a conclusion that he is on the spectrum. We do have to wait 6 weeks for the full report.

The initial appointment with speech and language therapists at Basingstoke was a bit unnerving for me as they take your child to another room and "work" with them. Thankfully my son (aged 13) coped with this although he felt it was very much below his level, but they were able to observe many behaviours that showed them he was on the spectrum. Excuse me for using this expression. I'm still finding it hard to say he's autistic. He is not "typical" as in displaying very obvious behaviours and he is able to socialise to a certain extent. I guess I will be adjusted as I am posting this on a forum. I have never done this before and am very out of my depth.

In terms of support, it is a sad truth that schools often cannot provide the support a child with ASD needs until there is a "diagnosis". Thankfully, our school listened to me (when I kept on and on and on) that his behavioural issues were not true of my son, and they have already (prior to diagnosis) put in place some strategies to help prevent him having a "meltdown". But I realise this is not often the case. Teachers in my opnion are often completely untrained how to coope with autism, but once they have a chance to research a little, they often are very helpful.

If anyone has any help for me about navigating this new area we are in I would be glad to hear. We still treat him as we always have - our slightly quirky, immensly fascinating, often trying, usually adorable youngest member of our family. But his siblings are struggling to give him any leeway and to realise that he needs acceptance and that their way of being is slightly different to his.

Apologies for the long post, I hope some of it has been helpful.

KR.

Hello

I used the Right to Choose pathway in Hampshire, I just went to my GP and said I wanted to use it and they sent me an option of 2 providers, Psicon and Clinical Partners. At that time, Psicon had a waitiing time of 6-9 months and Clinical Partners 3-6 months. However, as completely new to the concept of ASD and not knowing what the future might hold for my son, I chose to use Psicon on the basis that if in the future he should need medication they are able to "medically titrate" (which I had to try and find out what it meant - basically I think it means they can prescibe medication) wheras Clinical Partners cannot.

In fact the waiting time was considerably shorter, as having fiilled in the questionnaires (which have quite a short time to return) from both us and his school, we only waited 2 months before receiving a phonecall from Psicon saying they had a cancellation, could we bring my son to Basingstoke for the initial assessment in 3 days time. Of course I pulled all strings to make that happen and now, just 4 weeks later we have had a zoom call with another doctor and a conclusion that he is on the spectrum. We do have to wait 6 weeks for the full report.

The initial appointment with speech and language therapists at Basingstoke was a bit unnerving for me as they take your child to another room and "work" with them. Thankfully my son (aged 13) coped with this although he felt it was very much below his level, but they were able to observe many behaviours that showed them he was on the spectrum. Excuse me for using this expression. I'm still finding it hard to say he's autistic. He is not "typical" as in displaying very obvious behaviours and he is able to socialise to a certain extent. I guess I will be adjusted as I am posting this on a forum. I have never done this before and am very out of my depth.

In terms of support, it is a sad truth that schools often cannot provide the support a child with ASD needs until there is a "diagnosis". Thankfully, our school listened to me (when I kept on and on and on) that his behavioural issues were not true of my son, and they have already (prior to diagnosis) put in place some strategies to help prevent him having a "meltdown". But I realise this is not often the case. Teachers in my opnion are often completely untrained how to coope with autism, but once they have a chance to research a little, they often are very helpful.

If anyone has any help for me about navigating this new area we are in I would be glad to hear. We still treat him as we always have - our slightly quirky, immensly fascinating, often trying, usually adorable youngest member of our family. But his siblings are struggling to give him any leeway and to realise that he needs acceptance and that their way of being is slightly different to his.

Apologies for the long post, I hope some of it has been helpful.

KR.