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Private ASD testing in the UK

picitup

Hi All

I guess many have been where I am atm.  I was diagnosed as bipolar around 20 years ago, but have always wondered about being autistic.  The last time I had some MH support, a number of different professionals asked me if I thought I might be autistic.  They agreed to refer me to the NHS service to be tested.  But......

The wait is 5 years and at 66, might be dead then.  Also I asked how it was going and where I was in the queue about 12 months ago, but they said if they ring up, they are told "don't ask, we'll be in touch" which is fairly useless.  That brings up the other worry.  Many have had the experience of long waiting times in the NHS and when you chase it up, you find you've 'fallen off the radar' and are no longer in the queue.  So.....

I decided to research getting tested privately.  I did find a site:

https://connecttoautism.org/ 

So I'm going to give them a go.  You can book a free 15 minute consultation which I'll do when I get home.  I like the charging structure as it's £300 for an initial test then a further £1200 for the full test.  Not cheap, but you have the opportunity of jumping ship at the £300 mark if they think the full test is not warranted.

I think I'm going to go for it and will update this thread on what happens and what I think of it.  She says the diagnosis is recognised in the UK, so that's a plus for me.  I have no affiliation with them and will proceed with caution.

If anyone has any experience of private testing,  I'd be very interested to hear about other services and your experience of them.

Have a nice day y'all......

Steve

Parents

  • I’m not in a RTC area, but if, for whatever reason, you decide to go privately after all, just check that the private provider autism assessment process is in accordance with NICE guidelines and that is accepted by the NHS. 

    I clicked on your link and had a quick scan of the assessor. I see she has experience of working as a team, but I can’t see anything about her offering assessment by multi disciplinary team, which is what NICE guidelines requires.

    I was on the waiting list for an NHS diagnosis, so I contacted the NHS Autism Clinic who told me they needed the assessment completed by a multi disciplinary team and that it should be within NHS guidelines. My private assessment was completed over several appointments, face to face, and some of the assessment required me to do small manual tasks. I am glad I had a face to face assessment as it enabled a much more detailed medical report and feedback.

Reply

  • I’m not in a RTC area, but if, for whatever reason, you decide to go privately after all, just check that the private provider autism assessment process is in accordance with NICE guidelines and that is accepted by the NHS. 

    I clicked on your link and had a quick scan of the assessor. I see she has experience of working as a team, but I can’t see anything about her offering assessment by multi disciplinary team, which is what NICE guidelines requires.

    I was on the waiting list for an NHS diagnosis, so I contacted the NHS Autism Clinic who told me they needed the assessment completed by a multi disciplinary team and that it should be within NHS guidelines. My private assessment was completed over several appointments, face to face, and some of the assessment required me to do small manual tasks. I am glad I had a face to face assessment as it enabled a much more detailed medical report and feedback.

Children
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