Is it really this hard getting an assessment?

[1sue1]

First post on here, will try and be brief.

Son 8 in mainstream school, has always been difficult at times but i thought it was just him as you do...had school probs before and was on record of concern for behaviour back in reception. In yrs 1 and 2 they managed his behaviour ok although he was difficult at times.

Now in yr 3 teacher noticed problem in the first week and after various attempts like rewards etc he is still a prob, mainly in free time like lunchtimes. After prompting by teachers (who hinted Aspergers and said have I thought of taking him to doc)I asked gp for a referral.

GP didn't know what she had to do and said 'can't school get an ed psy to see him? I told her that NAS had told me the name of 2 centres nearest to me and that they thought my gp should write to one of them...so she wrote to the nearest one.

When she wrote to them, I phoned them after a week and they said give it 6 weeks and if you hear nothing get back to us.

Its 6 weeks this week, and i was not going to bother pushing them as a teacher at school said it can take 18 months (??!!)
Anyway yesterday i phoned and not only have they not got a letter they said they only deal with 0-4 anyway!

So, turns out that NAS gave me the wrong info, my GP has no clue about procedure and that this centre were also unsure about what to do next, even said why don't I ask someone at school to get him assessed.

God, all I wanna know is, does he have Aspergers or not??
So now, after a lot of pushing from me, my gp has faxed same letter to the correct paed at this centre and I have to now wait a minimum of 2 months.

Sorry that was meant to be short....

Can you tell me if this is usual? Why is there no set procedure like if I went to GP with a 'specialist' problem like skin complaint, a referral would be done without all this fuss!

mmm, i dont know. sounds like a terrible run of bad luck to me! i have 3 dcs both ds (8 and 4) have aspergers. my 8 yo was referred from GP to paediatrician at hospital. we met with her for our first appt after ooh about 5 months when she diagnosed him with Aspergers straight away. my 4 yo was also referred, tho through hv this time, to the same paed and due to his age he went through a 4 week assessment programme and diagnosed at the end. we were very lucky. i now know many many people who have battled for literally years to get a diagnosis once they were in the system.
can you get the NAS to send you some literature on AS in the meantime whilst hopefully it gets sorted out? at least you would have some idea of what you are looking for while you wait for the appt?

I have 2 DSs with Aspergers. It is the GPs job to make a referral-if she does not know how or where to, she should make it her business to find out!
As far as I know the ed psych cannot make an assessment for AS anyway-it needs to be done through the paediatrician or psychologist/psychiatrist at the local CDC or hospital. Go back to your GP and insist she finds out where to make the appropraite referral!

I have to say that the places that deal with things do keep changing - e.g. in speech and lang therapy they are currently employed by the PCTs but as of this year I think are increasingly based in schools as used to happen a long time ago. It can be hard to know where to send people.

Keep chasing. Ring your GP's secretary and ask whether the fax was definitely received, or the consultant's secretary and find out what the next step is. Horrible but I'm afraid it's the most likely way to get some kind of action.

My ds was alot younger than your ds when he was diagnosed, but it was the pre-school who got the ball rolling. They contacted the area senco who in turn contacted the SALT, Ed psych and paed which started the whole multi discplinary process which then resulted in a diagnosis. It does seem that you were messed about thoughHopefully now your paed is involved you shouldn't have to wait much longer.

Thanks all for your replies and letting me know your experiences.

I rang NAS who were really helpful, they said that this kind of thing can happen and it is not a set procedure and that different kinds of professionals can assess.

I rang the centre who have now definitely got the fax and have said to wait about 8 weeks now. He will be seen by the paed which is all i wanted in the first place...oh NAS did say check that this paed is able to test for Aspergers as if not he may then be referred on to a consultant elsewhere who can.

Anyway, ball is now moving. Wish same could be said for school but thats a whole other thread lol.

Thanks again.