I am looking for some advice on getting a diagnosis for Aspergers in an older child?

[2pt4kids]

Sorry in advance if this is long!
My younger brother who is now 14 has always been 'different'.
He was expelled from 3 different schools before he was 5yo and after a few years of struggle and upset, my Mum finally got him statemented and diagnosed with ADHD.
He was in a special needs school for a few years and eventually improved enough to be put into a mainstream secondary school.
Things have gone downhill from there really.
My Mum has felt that the support has dwindled since he has come out of the special school and things have become much much harder.
My brother is struggling at school. He is behaving terribly at home. He is becoming violent towards my Mum. He has no friends and things seem to be deteriorating further.
This morning a row between them escalated into him running out the house and towards a busy road. My Mum got in the car to go and find him. She saw him run across a road so pulled over into a layby, did it too fast, hit a post and badly smashed her car. She got out the car, was standing beside it sobbing, when my brother ran up to her, said 'you should have looked where you were going!' and ran off.
The school and my Mum were looking for him for an hour and a half before he turned up at school. Its the first time he has ever got to school on his own as normally he is too hesitant to get the bus or go anywhere on his own.
The school have advised my Mum to contact social services, but she isnt ready to do that yet as she doesnt want to just give up on him and him go into foster care.

Years ago the specialists mentioned that it is likely he has Aspergers as well as ADHD. At the time though, they said the only way to diagnose officially was to have my brother go to a residential place for a week to be observed. He was 8 then and my Mum couldnt face letting him go for a week (the place was too far for visits!)
She feels that if we can get him diagnosed now, it could help in understanding him more and getting any extra help that he needs with school etc.
We dont know where to start though.
Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer any advice?

Whereabouts in the country are you? I am in Cambridgeshire and was diagnosed last year, aged 42, on the NHS, at the Cambridge ARC centre, following a referral from my GP.

You could try contacting the NAS (National Autistic Society) here:

NAS

I would ask your gp for a referral to a paed. You could also ask to see a psychologist through CAHMS.

He does not need to go away to be diagnosed!!

I would def start with gp though.

Good luck

I also went to the GP for a referral to paed. services for DS then age 11 (Cambs.) - the school could have done it but they didn't seem to know how to (or want to themselves) although they supported him getting a dx. So far have found the schools' SEN coordinators both primary and secondary not always to know the system all that well. GPs are normally on your side and sympathetic.