hi,
I recently had an assessment with Psychiatry UK, i didnt connect with the assessor and felt he made things difficult, he kept saying I was a complicated case. i was exhausted when i came off the assessment and was told even though i tick most aspects of the assessment requirements he needed more information from my childhood. i said my 80yr old mother couldn't remember much but he kept pushing for me to do the form with her and for my father to do an informant even though i kept saying i didn't have a good relationship with my 84 yr old father.
I grew up in a time where children were seen and not heard, i was petrified of my father so was a quiet well behaved child as i daren't show /express anything other than good behaviour for fear of reprimand physical or verbal. My mother has always joked that she picked up the wrong baby at the maternity hospital because i'm so different to them although she cant really put her finger on why exactly. If i didn't look like my family i would agree she had picked up the wrong baby. i wanted to say to the assessor that i'm not going through this personally invasive questioning for the sake of it. I came off disheartened thinking i'd leave it but then was offered by a work coach (struggling at work) to attend a day training in understanding autism, the OT who ran the training is autistic and encouraged me to keep going with the assessment.
The initial assessor suggested i do a masking assessment online, which scored high, he also suggested i get another informant by a different friend as there were a couple of mismatches in my friends form (she told me afterwards that she guessed a couple of things as the form didn't give the option of not sure in some of the questions). I've done this and then saw that he'd already closed my case after the initial assessment so that doesn't make sense he requested info but closed the case.
I had asked Psychiatry UK shortly after the assessment that once i'd got the maksing questionnaire etc to them if i could have someone else follow up assessment as i didn't want to see the same one again - especially as the assessment was recorded so they could watch that, read my notes and look at new evidence. They said no. The thing is i dont want to see that man again, and i dont think i should have to. I am thinking of raising a complaint with the mixed messages of getting info to him but seeing he's already closed the assessment. He had also suggested i have an ADHD assessment which might have masked the autism, i can relate to ADHD slightly but i dont want to go down that path, this assessment has taken a lot of brain space and my focus is managing the sensory and social challenges, especially at work. I wish they could do the autism and adhd in one assessment.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar experience and or suggestions. thanks for reading :)
