Request for advice (UK ND folk)

[halojedha]

I've just finally sent a message to my GP requesting a referral to Psychiatry UK for an ADHD assessment, after intending to do so for, oh, 3 years?

That leaves my autism assessment. I've been advised against pursuing autism diagnosis through the NHS as their waiting times are like 5 years long. Do any of you have any suggestions about how I go about this alongside the ADHD referral? Should I ask Psychiatry UK to assess me for both, or am I better off paying for a separate autism assessment privately? If the latter, do you have any recommendations where I should go?

Comments

[wildeabandon]

I don't have advice per se, but as possibly useful background information, my NHS process/timeline was, whilst not exactly swift, quite a lot quicker than that. It may be that I got seen by the autism clinic more quickly because the referral came from the ADHD clinic rather than my GP, but it may also just be a postcode lottery thing.

Mid 2017(?I don't have a record for this one, but I think it was about six months before the pre-assessment) - GP referral to ADHD services
January 2018 - ADHD pre-assessment appointment
November 2018 - ADHD assessment
December 2018 - ADHD diagnosis, and referral from there to autism clinic
May 2019 - first autism assessment
June 2019 - second autism assessment
August 2019 - autism diagnosis

I believe that robert_jones had his autism assessment privately - I can ask him who with and whether he recommends them, although that was a long time ago now, so his recommendation may be somewhat out of date.

[kaberett]

I have no idea on this, I'm afraid, but good luck. <3

[highlyeccentric]

I would recommend going through the ADHD diagnosis first, and taking the report from that to the autism diagnostic people. The ADHD diagnostic people may even refer you or at least recommend it. My ADHD assessment flagged likely autism (i already had a provisional diagnosis from a psychologist) and the neuropsych was like... do you want to jump through this extra hoop, yea or nay?

[sfred]

No specific advice, but I hope the process goes well for you and is useful.