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.

How do you differentiate between autism and trauma?

Do you ensure that you've excluded trauma in order to diagnose autism and document this within your report?

Yes, it literally says that psychologists can do the full assessment.

So no, a psychiatrist or other medical doctor does not have to be involved in diagnosis.
As I said, other members of the team contribute towards diagnosis.
You were not correct.

Of course I blinking read it. I was part of the team that set up our multidisciplinary assessment and have been doing it almost 20 years.

You are right that psychiatrists have to prescribe so any youngster needing melatonin or sertraline or what have you is referred on to them. They do not need to be involved in every diagnosis as you claimed.

When will autism be defined outside of the DSM and ICD and move away from the mental health and medical models?

Autism is neither a MH condition or a physical health problem, it's a neurodiverse experience.

(homosexuality was removed from the DSM for similar reasons in 1973)

I'm sorry but where does it say that social workers can do a full autism and adhd assessment and make the diagnosis?

NHS pathways have a multidisciplinary team approach under care of a psychiatrist, which is appropriate. The charities and non nhs providers don't and that is what I'm saying is not OK. Presumably you know all of this and are well aware of the concerns and problems in the sector? If you are actually a psychiatrist that is,

Elvanse has the opposite effect on people who don't have ADHD. If it's helping him focus I'd say it's very likely that the diagnosis is correct.

No a clinical psychologist or paediatrician can also oversee. In my area on the NHS children under 12 are diagnosed by a team lead by a paediatrician, children 12-18 a psychiatrist, over 18 a clinical psychologist.

I am a psychologist, as I said.

OP has not as far as I know claimed to be on her own diagnosing. She works as part of a multidisciplinary team and all cases are discussed and agreed within that team before diagnosis is given. This is clinical supervision. We do the same in my team.

Psychiatrists aren’t qualified to diagnose things like autism either. If they were, I would have been diagnosed with autism much earlier instead of repeated wrong diagnoses from psychiatrists trying to fit me into the only boxes they knew 🙄🙄🙄

You said you were a 'psych' which as I'm sure you know, implies psychiatrist in tbe medicAl world. At no point when I was asking you about your medical degree or medical opinion did you point out you weren't a doctor. That's a bit Walter Mitty, so I don't actually believe you are a psychologist either now. You certainly don't seem to know much anout the issue, and I suspect your pictures were from chatgpt. To be fair, this is mumsnet, take everything with a pinch of salt!

And psychologists can diagnose but they can't prescribe, so you would still need a doctor to be involved.

Given that 25–40% of people with dyslexia also have ADHD, and vice versa, and your ex wouldn’t have been in with your son for the actual assessment, perhaps you should be supportive towards your son and believe his diagnosis rather than taking your issues with your ex out on your child.

This happened with my DD aged 14 at the time. She had to have what I think was called an advanced ADI (but could be wrong, it was 8 years ago) - the assessor said she could see she was masking but that she just failed to score enough on the ADOS so needed to do the advanced. This purely involved me being interviewed for a very long time rather than DD about her childhood and family history. If you believe she has ASD I would push for an advanced interview. Good luck.

OP never said she diagnoses, she said she does adhd/autism assessments... for the NHS.
NHS teams are not always lead by a psychiatrist and if you know of any private providers who are not following NICE guidelines then report them.

I think this is the case with us too

Back to school means a reduction in sugar and screen time anyway, so will see if her behaviour and constant eloping improves 🥺

You really are rather rude.

As I am sure you know, a psych is a psychologist. We all call ourselves clin psych or ed psych or whatever. I never claimed to be anything other than I am. If I wanted to pretend to a psychiatrist I could, but then I would be hardly likely to say that I am not one.

Look, you were wrong when you said only psychiatrists can diagnose That's okay. You have learned something today.

You can look up the pictures in the link I helpfully provided. They are in the the subsection "delivered by an appropriately skilled multidisciplinary workforce".

@fuzzypeach thank you

I do. Traumatised children often act out. I’m not saying they have ADHD symptoms, but to say there’s no such thing as bad parenting is a bit odd!

My son is 6 and is neurodiverse. He has traits of both ADHD and Autism. It was quickly identified in the school setting by his teachers and he has been referred for additional support (if he needs it). The main issues at school are anxiety and a need for reassurance. There's stimming too. My husband and I are reluctant to pursue a formal diagnosis, but would seek out support privately if and when required (eg. Therapy etc). We would not medicate him at present and would be very reluctant to. In the current climate, we are not convinced a formal diagnosis would help much. What do you think and why do it?

Imagine showing your ignorance not once, but repeatedly on a thread where many posters have proved you wrong, and evidenced by clinical guidelines yet still you argue @Hobbiestwriter

It may be useful to add some within this statement.

Any diagnosis should be done with multidisciplinary input and discussion to arrive at an appropriate differential diagnosis - early trauma can present with very similar behavioural traits but neuropsychological/cognitive skills are different to those meeting the criteria for an ND diagnosis.

Any ASC/ADHD diagnostic team should have a clinical diagnostician within it ie a Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist (both are Drs). Obviously Drs (medical professionals or clinical psychologists) who work in other specialties may not be as up to date on the rapidly developing understanding of neurodiversity, unfortunately, just as with other broad professions eg SaLT and SW.

What is VERY worrying is some private services using minimal training in assessments, non-diagnostician, non-MH pharmacists etc to make diagnoses.

Just popping on to second what you’ve said @Millionsofmonkeys (and very apt username too 🙂)

I have lots of family members and friends in teaching. The ones that work in inner London schools where there’s lots of deprivation say it’s incredibly difficult to get ECHP as primary and or parents were not able to get evidence, put things through or didn’t understand system etc - a lot of these children are in the poorest wards in London. Do you think there’s more middle class children with ECHP’s as their parents know the system and can push it and challenge it so their kids can get addition support when actually - an ECHP isn’t necessarily needed? Not sure if I have explained myself well and hope my question isn’t offensive.

Do you think it's better to go for Right To Choose or wait for an NHS appointment? I live in an area with very NHS long waiting lists but have been told that I will get a far more detailed assessment report and better post diagnostic support if I do wait. According to local support groups Right To Choose could still mean a few months' wait and would be little more than Yes or No.

@rurbane we went down the Right to Choose route. I think that the assessment was quicker and less in depth than a private or full NHS one would have been. We got a report, but a lot of this was based on the information that we had provided in the pre-assessment questionnaires.
This suited us, as we were sure of the outcome, DD wanted the official diagnosis, and we didn't have the funds to go private. But I can see that this may not be ideal for everyone.

@magictits to lighten the mood a little, do you use the frog book during your assessments?
My DD was asked to say why she thought the frogs fell, and she replied Gravity. We have laughed a lot about this since, and I have taken to buying her toy frogs whenever I see them!

We had a letter last week saying as my daughter has been on the CAHMS list for over 2 years they are transferring her to HELIOS, anyone have any experience of them?