Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all
Just looking for some advice on what the referal process has been like for everyone as I really dont know what to expect and feel a bit in limbo with the lack of visibility of the whole thing.
My daughter is currently in year 8 and looking back she has always had issues socially since starting primary school but she reached breaking point when she entered high school last year, the change was just too much for her to mask. She hasseen various people over the last year e.g. a Psychatrist and more recently had CBT therapy. Anyone that has seen her has stated that an ASD would be benificial for her stating possible autisum, executive processing difficulties and in a recent apt possible ADHD was discussed. Her school have been really good and put lots of things in place to help but it took me to nearly the end of the school year to get them to look into if she needs to be reffered for ASD assessment, I had to push them to do their investigations into this and after completing the school assesments they have identified enough areas of concern to reffer her for assessment. She masks a lot and the difficulties she expereneces are not always visible in school as most of it goes on in her head until she gets home where she lets it all out. She can mask socially but if you actually pay attention to her she doesnt interact unless her peers engage her first and then she finds it difficult to keep herself involved in the group
My issue now is that she has been refered through the school and I feel like its a black hole, the school have informed me that current wait lists for our area are in excess of 20 months which will take her well into year 9 before the process even starts. The school have told me that i will receive updates via the post but they have no idea when I will receive any confirmation that they actually have the referal and its just a case of waiting.
I think what I am just trying to find out is what did everyone else experience, did you receive confirmation that the referral had been received and further guidance of what will happen next soon after it was sent or not? I'm worried that I wont really hear anything for 20 months from them and that means that I will just be stressed out that its been missed and the process will be delayed further
Hi and welcome to the community!
When I (an adult) was on the NHS waiting list, I received an acknowledgement of my referral. One year later, I received a follow up letter apologising for the delay and explaining that they would get to me as soon as their waiting list allowed. In both letters they stressed that they couldn't tell me when that was likely to be.
After that, I switched my referral to a private provider via Right to Choose (on the advice of my NHS psychiatrist, who suspected that my further wait on the NHS could be another year or more). That private-sector provider then assessed and diagnosed me a few months later.
You might find the articles here helpful:
NAS - What can I do while waiting for an autism assessment?
They include:
Thats really interesting, thanks for your reply. With right to choose can that be done as soon as you receicve the acknowlegement letter as I had already heard that it can be quicker along side opting for online consultations. I have just read some information from my local area that says the referal should be triaged within 10 days so hopefully I will have the acknowledement letter in a couple of weeks