Im an Autism and ADHD Assessor - AMA

[magictits]

I get heaps of questions about this IRL so thought I would post here and answer any questions in case they are helpful to anyone.

Do you work for the NHS or a private service? And do you assess adults or children?

What part of the assessment do you do?

What other professionals are involved in the assessment?

What are your qualifications?

Do you assess for both at the same time? If so, how can you make sure both are properly and fully assessed for?

Private and NHS.
Adults and children.
I do all parts of the assessment as trained in ADOS-2 and DIVA-5, but we have a multi-disciplinary team review for each assessment.
We have psychs, social workers, OTs, SLT's, mental health nurses, and nurse prescribers as part of our team.

Do you assess in person or via zoom etc?

What percentage of children genuinely have ADHD as opposed to being badly parented?

Mine are social worker, with training in ADOS-2, ADI-R, DIVA-5 etc, and lots of experience working with chldren and adults with autism, as well as being autistic myself. I have a masters in social work and a master in autism. I also have training in female presentation of autism and adhd, so specialise in that area specifically.

I do access for both at the same time (but not hte same session). ADOS-2 assessment is for autism - DIVA-5 is for ADHD. So the assessments are different. There are some overlaps though for sure. But we are trained in that.

Do you think that we are over diagnosing?

Both. Mostly via zoom but young children I like to see face to face.

What use is it?
I had an ADHD assessment as a 55 year old woman. My GP tells me that "anyone can get an assessment" and that because I had a PhD, I have obviously been successful - do won't even begin to entertain referring me for medication.
I feel totally disheartened and invalidated.

Well I don't believe in 'bad parenting'. They wouldn't get a diagnosis if they didn't have it. Its a hard assessment.

No I don't.

Only Doctors should be diagnosing, do yiu make the diagnosis or the psychiatrists? It's a medical condition not a social one, how is a social worker qualified to diagnose medical conditions?

Honestly most professionals - even psychologists - are woefully under educated about ADHD and autism - especially the female presentation. So sadly your post doesn't shock me at all. Your GP is wrong though. You are totally entitled to medication of ritalin with a diagnosis, so you need to come down hard on your GP or change GP. Personally I didn't like ritalin as it made me lose my hyperfocus - which I hugely benefit from for work and study as you may find the same being an academic yourself. My ability to not switch off actually serves me well in a lot of ways (not in others), but I do know many people find their racing brains to be a burden.

Please don't feel disheartened though. Sadly its a common response, you just need to find a more educated and sympathetic GP.

I myself and highly academic but have struggles with certain areas in life, and I was late diagnosed too (48) and it has been life changing.

I'm a female in my 40s. I have a strong suspicion that I have adhd. But I didn't struggle at primary school, apart from anxiety. Is it possible to have adhd without any obvious issues at that age? Also, I feel my difficulties have got worse over recent years, which I've attributed to the challenges of working full time with two children.

Assuming you genuinely believe the diagnosis that are being given are correct, how do you deal with the constant comments about people doing it for benefits, self diagnosis from a TikTok video, both autism and ADHD are over and incorrectly diagnosed, you can buy labels, everyone wants a label… (I could go on for ages here…)

I’m asking this as I’m diagnosed with both and all my children either have both or autism. It’s hard being neurodivergent and harder still to know the a significant amount of people don’t believe you or your motives for being diagnosed.

Social workers and many other professionals can administer the ADOS-2 if they have had the training.

We are part of a MDT (Multi-disciplinary Team) as I said. Each assessment involves several practitioners from different fields.

Great post.
I’ve just been referred through RTC for a combined assessment - I chose RTN as they were the only provider that I could find who did combined assessments via RTC. DH is currently being assessed for ADHD and I’ve been helping him with the forms. From this, I’m worried that the fact I’ve chosen to do a combined assessment will be detrimental to me as lots of the answers that I’d give for the ADHD assessment would contradict a typical presentation for ASD. And I’m 100% certain I have both and have masked very well all my life. Both DDs have diagnosed ASD and undiagnosed ADHD and I did my degree on girls with ASD and masking, plus 20 years of teaching experience, so I do have some knowledge!
I guess my question would be, how do you assess both at the same time when some of the criteria are opposing - eg I’m extremely socially awkward and shy, yet I do excessively talk in the right environment.

So many friends and family have said for years I have adhd but I genuinely don’t know how a diagnosis would make a difference and if my ‘symptoms’ are symptoms or just my personality. I’m very organised, hyper focus on projects and solutions, but when I’m 90% done I lose interest. I’m quite an emotional person but hide it very well and strangely go ridiculously calm in very stressful situations. I hate sitting still, always busy and have stuff on the go!

This is very very common in women with neurodiversity. You may have been masking heavily in earlier years, and you may be struggling now after burning out after all the years of masking. Menopause also doesn't help. We now know the huge damage masking can do to women and girls on the spectrum. The impact on mental health is huge.

I’ve read that symptoms can become magnified as you approach menopause - maybe you’ve been able to mask until now without realising?

None of my questions were relevant.

For example, if you went out with mentioned friend tonight where would you go?
I started most of my answers with it won't happen but...
The reason being I haven't seen this friend since school! Nearly 40 years.

My Mum didn't get a chance to talk about me rocking as a child and needing 30 mins of 7inch vinyl whilst rocking on sofa before school.

We both felt very dismissed.

Good assessors - with experience of the female presentation - will totally understand this. Those with ADHD and ASD are walking contradictions (me included!) so its pretty common.

So is it a doctor making the diagnosis or not? Do you work for the NHs, where a diagnosis usually is made by a doctor, or one of the charities that hires cheap unqualified staff to pump out diagnoses for money and then fries to hand them back to their Gp for 'shared care' after a nonsense diagnosis by a nurse/social worker/ taxi driver who wandered in?

We find puberty in girls and menopause in women exaggerate symptoms massively! Its like the wheels just fall off.

Sorry I didn't give you any background - 6 years waiting for the appointment, I'm early 50s. 4 Alevels. But dropped out of Uni.
I just didn't feel heard and he's giving the - well you're making eye contact etc. Exactly because I've been coached to by life, job centre, interviews... People.
I don't know.