AS diagnosis in Brisbane - Who?

Post Reply New Topic

Hi everyone. My little sister is looking to try to get a diagnosis, so I was wondering if anyone knows of any psychiatrists or psychologists who have actually diagnosed people with Aspergers around the Brisbane area? Australia that is.

I know there is the Minds and Hearts clinic but I just looked and diagnostic appointments cost $600.

Would appreciate it if you have experience with anyone else?

Thanks.

I believe Tony Attwood lives there. He might still do diagnoses.

hi I'm in Australia and my diagnosis just cost $1000 so I think $600 is just what it's going to cost unless your sister is under 18 then there might be some funding available.

Minds and Hearts is Tony Attwood's clinic. It's where I was diagnosed, but it seems that the costs have gone up since then. Also it's difficult to get a GP to refer you to there as most of them have never heard of the clinic or of Aspergers. My sister tried to get a referral today and the GP wouldn't refer her.

Trying to minimize the diagnosis costs by getting it covered under Medicare, which requires a referral. No private health insurance.

If you are not under 13 and qualify for the federal government pediatricain assistance with diagnosis then the only way to get referrals would be via a GP Mental Health Care Plan and/or an GP Management and Team Care Arrangement Plan.

The GP Mental Health Care Plan will require you to be daignosed with a mental illness and to be referred for psychological treatment to a psychologist (which Toni Attwood is), a social worker or an occupational therapist. Whether you could get the assessment under that is not really known. I guess an asessment could be part of it, but it would at most reduce the costs very minimally, about $80 per session and only those with a psychologist, and ASD assessments are multidisicplinery. The GP Mental Health Care Plan would allow up to 12 sessions per calander year in groups of 6 sessions.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/ ... rams-amhpm

The GP Management and Team Care Arrangement Plan is for people with complex conditions requiring more than 2 professionals outside of the GP to plan together with the GP to work out the patients care needs and to try to stablise the conditions. It allows a person to be referred to a range of allied health professionals for up to 5 sessions in total per calander year, at about $50 per session.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/ ... ochure.htm

There are specific programs in place to help with children being diagnosed and to provide services and support for children, but they do need to be under 13 and referred by a GP to a pediatricain.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/ ... m-children

The best thing to do is to contact Toni Attwood's clinic and ask if they know of any psychitristst that could assist with an assessment, as a referral to a psychiatrist is going to be much easier and they can more easily assist with referrals to psychologists and occupational therapists if needed. A diagnosis is very time consuming and will require a multidisiplinary assessment, it is not something that will happen in one session. Australia is now setting guidelines for what needs to occur for a diagnosis to take place, and that is to ensure that there is consistency throughout the country. You also need to consider why it is that you want the assessment for and what it will provide for you or the person concerned. If you believe you have it and can put the strategies and the like in place to get the supports you need then is it worth paying the money out for an assessment. An assessment will not give you anything you do not already have. Pensions, support in the home and the like are only provided to those that have signficant functional limitations, and a diagnosis will not do that. You would have to prove why it took until now to ask for assistance, what you were doing before, why you could do things before, etc, etc.
http://www.autismvictoria.org.au/diagno ... SFINAL.pdf

Remember it is against the law for a GP to refer to a psychologist for no treatment reason, and if what you want is simply an assessment they simply cannot do that, it is illegal. You could also contact the Autism Association of Queensland and ask them for advice, if anything they would be the first and best place to contact. It is unlikely that you would be eligible for any assistance without the assessment being a multidisciplinary one, and from what I see of the hearts and mind clinic they are not doing that. You certainly cannot access any standard ASD services or federal funding without it being supported by a psychiatrist and/or pediatrician. Contact Austim QLD if you really do want to be assessed, but you need to consider what the reasons for the assessment are, as the words on a peice of paper are not going to make things any better for you:
http://www.autismqld.com.au/index.php?page_id=1

Thankyou very much bjcirceleb. Your information is really helpful.

I didn't know you needed to have a mental illness to be referred to a psychologist. I had previously been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, so that makes a little more sense why I was able to access the GP Mental Health Plan.

I agree with you that it's worth looking at why you want the diagnosis. For me I wanted it because I wanted to access the psychologists at Minds and Hearts for help with anxiety and other issues. I hadn't found anyone who gave me any useful help before...

My sister doesn't have any mental illnesses and only wants help to be able to communicate with people better. She struggles in her day to day life with some things. A lot of people treat her like she's stupid, because she's a bit slower to react and process things. In reality she would be high-functioning autistic and not Aspergers (not that it makes much difference) because she had speech delays and other developmental delays as a child.

I'll speak to her further about it and show her your information. I really appreciate you taking the time to find these links and explain everything.