Waiting for an assessment and burnout

Hi and welcome to the community!

If you live in England and are currently on the NHS's own waiting list (ie for an assessment to be carried out by the NHS itself), then you might like to ask your GP about re-referring you using the Right to Choose pathway (RTC), which you are entitled to use instead if you wish.

In England (only), this enables access to certain, approved, private autism assessment providers who typically have much shorter waiting lists than the NHS, but with your referral and assessment still fully funded by the NHS. 

I was on an NHS waiting list for two years before I learned about RTC and switched to it (on the recommendation of an NHS psychiatrist). My assessment and diagnosis (I chose to use Psychiatry UK) then followed around just four months later.

There's a list of RTC providers for autism at the bottom of this page, for example:

NHS Sussex - NHS Right to Choose: for Autism and ADHD Assessment

More information:

NAS - How to request an autism assessment

Hollyhop said:

I think I may have hit burnout

You might find the strategies in this NAS resource helpful:

NAS - Autistic fatigue and burnout

There's also some great (free) advice here from Dr Megan Neff - a neurodivergent author (who's also a clinician and advocate):

Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan

I've also bought this new book of hers. It covers the subject in much greater detail, whilst remaining very user-friendly (including lots of diagrams and worksheets, for example):

The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan

Hi and welcome to the community!

If you live in England and are currently on the NHS's own waiting list (ie for an assessment to be carried out by the NHS itself), then you might like to ask your GP about re-referring you using the Right to Choose pathway (RTC), which you are entitled to use instead if you wish.

In England (only), this enables access to certain, approved, private autism assessment providers who typically have much shorter waiting lists than the NHS, but with your referral and assessment still fully funded by the NHS. 

I was on an NHS waiting list for two years before I learned about RTC and switched to it (on the recommendation of an NHS psychiatrist). My assessment and diagnosis (I chose to use Psychiatry UK) then followed around just four months later.

There's a list of RTC providers for autism at the bottom of this page, for example:

NHS Sussex - NHS Right to Choose: for Autism and ADHD Assessment

More information:

NAS - How to request an autism assessment

Hollyhop said:

I think I may have hit burnout

You might find the strategies in this NAS resource helpful:

NAS - Autistic fatigue and burnout

There's also some great (free) advice here from Dr Megan Neff - a neurodivergent author (who's also a clinician and advocate):

Autistic Burnout Recovery: How to Build a Recovery Plan

I've also bought this new book of hers. It covers the subject in much greater detail, whilst remaining very user-friendly (including lots of diagrams and worksheets, for example):

The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan