New Autism NICE Pathway available in the UK

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NICE have released a new pathway for Austim diagnosis and management in the UK. This finally includes information on adult screening and diagnosis.

See the full detail here: http://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/autism/
Plus new guidance: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG142

This is a tool that GPs could/should be using when making a diagnosis decision. This is a very important development.

Jason.

Hopefully the NHS will take this on board but with David Camerons cuts and changes who knows what is going to happen. I really think that at the moment the NHS has no real understanding of autism.

To me I don't think this will make a slight bit of difference, unless you get the media vilifying the latest criminal and they can tag the offender with autism/aspergers or someone is a screaming ret*d as portrayed in Rain Man or completely shut down they do not care.

Politicians only care about their own issues and image, why should they care about the downtrodden invisible?

At least somebody has gone to the trouble of publishing this. What good it may do over & above whatever was being done up until now, I don't know.

At least it gives doctors some simple guidelines to help them identify autism. Many doctors have no idea so at least they now have a checklist to go through. I think it is a step in the right direction.

Of course this won't affect the available funds or services so although you may be more likely to get a referral that is no guarantee that you will get assessed.

I am slightly more hopeful. The Autism Act 2009 has made diagnosis and treatment pretty much a legal requirement, whatever is going on with your NHS Health Trusts finances. Bear in mind also that the actual diagnosis asside, support costs are far more fixed than they appear.

The problems obtaining a diagnosis have typically been getting your GP to complete the refereral, now there is clear guidance. No longer can it be stated that autism is a child only issue, which the old pathway used to imply, as there was no seperate stream for adults.

Jason.

I was told by my GP that many PCTs do refuse to sort out the funding / assessments for adults because apparently, we should have adapted. Or something like that anyway.

I assume this will just apply to England and Wales and there is / will be seperate guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland?

My understanding is NICE guidance is England and Wales only, do you know if that is true in this case?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify this.

It's word for word the process I've gone through so far and what I've been offered. I'm currently at the stage of doing a two-part sensory assessment and being offered support for managing sensory difficulties at work (which was one of the things that were offered to me and the one I asked for).

It's extremely disappointing to hear that some GPs are blocking access to NHS services. Not all are, though, mine was brilliant. She knows I have a full-time job and asked me if I was able to write down some of the things I find challenging. I did so, went back with my list two days later, and and she referred me immediately. She thought I might have to wait up to three months for my first appointment because the service is is such heavy demand, but in the event I only waited about half that time. It was quite long enough, actually, as once I'd set the process in motion I wanted to get on with it – but I'd expected to have to wait, so it wouldn't have been too bad if it had been longer.

If anyone is struggling with their GP, it might be worth trying writing things down if you're able to and you haven't tried this way already. I certainly wouldn't have been able to explain my challenges in an articulate way verbally; I'd written myself a prompt list before I made the appointment, but I was glad the GP suggested a more detailed list. She was able to send that to the consultant, which I think helped me get an appointment more quickly (the consultant later told me that it was clear from what I'd written that I should go through the initial screening and almost certainly full clinical assessment).

Welsh Government is mentioned in the guidance notes, so I assume it applies to at least England and Wales. Not sure about Scotland, I don't know much about the system there. It's probable it's England and Wales only.

This clear cut guidance does make it much harder for a GP to refuse to refer. If you ever checked the old autism pathway, there was a complete lack of any mention of adult autism/aspergers, this gave GPs a way to side step the issue.

Jason.