Getting diagnosed in the UK

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Sounds like it went well. Hope you don't have to wait too long for your appointment, they can be annoyingly long, especially if you're not in extreme distress/need. Let us know how it goes.

Good luck with your pending appointment Miss Moneypenny. Sadly I was labelled with similar things to what you're worried about (chronic generalised anxiety disorder and social cognitive issues amongst others) and it is ridiculous when they do that. The cause needs to be found rather than simply labelling bits and pieces. Obviously labels can be given to the various traits of AS but they all need bringing together to see the overall reason. Please do post again after your assessment to say what happened and what you had to do.

Update: My workplace have been badgering me to find out when my appointment will be, and with whom. They are insisting I phone the GP surgery and find out who the referral letter was written to, and to give them the name of the doctor or hospital I will be seeing.

I told the lady in HR that getting an adult diagnosis is rarely straightforward, that it could take time, and the first person I see isn't necessarily going to have the necessary knowledge and experience. I said if the Occupational Health have any experience of ASD's, they will know all this. I asked her if it would help if I spoke to the OH myself, as if they understand that getting an adult diagnosis isn't straightforward, there might be things they can do to get the ball rolling in advance of any formal diagnosis. She dodged the question and didn't want to give me their phone number.

I couldn't get anyone on the phone when I called the NAS hotline to ask for advice about my workplace rights. There was just an automated message and no one has answered my email yet.

There is an agenda going on but I can't put my finger on it and I can't find anyone who can tell me my legal rights.

Don't you have any way to contact OH yourself? I receive copies of each report our OH send to HR and my line manager about me, and they all have contact details on them.

I have never dealt directly with our HR, it's always been through OH. When I was waiting for various appointments they always asked whereabouts in the process I was (actually they still do in regard to support I am currently trying to get in place).

I think you should find out the information about the referral if only for your own interest, including how long the waiting list is.

The referral from my GP to psychiatrist (who had an interest in ASDs in adults) took 3 months.

Edit to add: I have always had relatively prompt replied from the NAS when I have emailed them ... within about a week or so, and the answers have been full and personal (not boiler plate text). When did you email them?

It sounds like they want to sack you, but your mention of a potential disability has got them scared.

What exactly has happened so far? Have you had any verbal or written warnings?

Jason.

I was reading this thread, and it was almost like somebody had written about my life...

I also have just started the diagnostic process- I'm told that I will have a first appointment where I will have a psychiatric assessment and a screening interview, and based on that would then go for full diagnosis. I have no idea how long this will take, as still waiting to hear about it.

With work, the only way I have managed to hang on is that I have mental health issues as well as probable AS, and disclosed both of these facts pretty much as soon as they come up. Technically, that means that they have to treat me as if I do have AS and therefore things are covered under the DDA. Your employer has to take your disclosure of probable AS as if you have been diagnosed, if it was suggested by psychologist/GP, like mine was, and therefore have to take action to ensure fair access and reasonable adjustments.

I'm also on the brink of going into capability- I failed my appraisal and been given 3 months to turn it round. Now the thing is that most of the things they are complaining about all have a direct link to my AS and the fact I haven't been coping with some of my quirks like I normally do because of my health issues (mostly brought on by work stress). I don't honestly know how I would manage to fight back if they did put me on capability, as it would technically be breaking the DDA and they would be discriminating.
I feel that I have to now get a formal diagnosis as then it would stop all of the discrimination at work- boss doesn't do anything and doesn't really believe me- she sees it as an excuse, even when I would never use my problems as an excuse. I haven't been forced in to a diagnosis explicitly in the same way as the OP, but feel that I have implicitly.
As a teacher, I have involved my union in all of this to see what will happen as I can't do it by myself. I am a really good teacher- anyone who works in my classroom would say this- it's just that I fall to pieces in observations and can't cope with all of the stuff to do outside of the actual teaching/working with children.

Another thing that the OP could try is Access to Work- with AS, you can get some funding to help you, and I have funding for a workplace assessment in September that I am really hoping will give me some help with how to deal with problems and also will help my boss to understand how difficult I am finding things, how she makes things worse and how she needs to change things to help me. Hopefully this will help in stopping capability...

I don't know how to contact the relevant OH. The HR people wouldn't give me their contact details and said I could only go through them, and only once I'm in receipt of a doctor's diagnosis. I Googled Occupational Health and our location and a zillion sites came up. I don't know which one the firm uses.

They were on the verge of instituting disciplinary proceedings but it hadn't reached the point of warnings etc. I think they were probably scared off because I not only mentioned AS, but I said that some of the things that some of the complainers had done verged upon bullying and that I was quite prepared to seek external advice about that.

Even my GP thought that some of the complaints were bs - forgetting to cc in one of my bosses on an email had become generalised to "lack of communication", a junior boss going behind my back to ask a colleague for help instead when I was frantically busy had been twisted somehow to "lack of liaising with colleagues", a once-off misinterpretation of an email had been blown up to business-threatening proportions to the HR people when to my face I'd been told there was no harm done, and every minor error from the past year and a half which as far as I knew had already been resolved and apologised for had been recycled again to construct a huge charge sheet against me. I could go on and on with examples.

The thing is, I don't even know what support I would need, assuming a diagnosis was obtained. Sure, I'd like to sit in a quieter part of the office where I don't have my back to the intersection of two corridors and don't feel so exposed/watched. Other than that, I just want to do the work I'm given and not be expected to have "initiative", whatever that might be.

You might get some support and advice from either the CAB or a bullying advice centre (e.g. phone the number at http://nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/ or http://www.bullying.co.uk/). The pressure from HR seems unreasonable to me - if they are so interested in your diagnosis, then their own company medic should be referring you.

From an earlier post:



So it seems that their company would pay for Miss MoneyPenny to see someone privately.

I agree that the pressure from HR does seem unreasonable, and you should be able to see OH (and therefore have their contact details) on request. You should ask to be referred - they exist to provide advice if your health is affecting your work. At my workplace we can self refer to OH, or if like me you are off sick for over a month you get a management referral (where the workplace refers you).

What about contacting the one you think most likely, or even any of them, and they will reply and forward your enquiry to the correct one for you? You could say that if they are not the correct one, could they respond to you to let you know which one is. If your employer is being underhand in any way you need to respond with a few tactics of your own, to unearth information you need. Otherwise they might somehow use it against you and say you were being obstructive or something.



If they are prepared to pay, on the surface that sounds good. However, it's highly unlikely that a non-NHS diagnosis would be accepted by the NHS and there might be reasons you would need it to be. Also, as they are paying the bill, they might have a word with the private psychiatrist to find nothing wrong with you so that they could avoid all the hassle of a diagnosis to them, and if they are intending sacking you (not saying they are but I've had my own bad experiences with the underhandedness of superior so-called professionals in the workplace) they might then feel free to do so without the burden of a 'disability' to consider.

I saw the primary health care clinician yesterday for the initial screening interview.

She already had my online AS tests and some more general tests that my careers psychologist had conducted, all of which had been forwarded in advance by my GP. The interview session lasted just over an hour, during which time I was asked a lot of questions, and the doctor took a whole life history.

At the end of the interview, the doctor said that there were clear indications of some kind of autistic spectrum condition, probably Asperger's.

To make a full diagnosis, however, I would need to be referred on to a specialist clinic and the healthcare trust for our part of town doesn't have that. The issue of the cost involved came up, and the doctor made it clear that priority is given to people who need medication, social workers etc. and I am clearly living independently and show no signs of mental illness. If I were to see the specialist clinic to narrow down exactly what category fits (AS, HFA, PDD-NOS or whatever), that would require the input of someone who had seen me growing up. The doctor mentioned that this would probably be a questionnaire or survey that they would need to fill out.

Anyway, the doctor will write to my GP with her findings and cc me in on the letter in perhaps a couple of weeks' time (they're always very backlogged on their admin). I'm hoping the HR manager will accept her letter as sufficient information, as it seems clear enough to me from what we discussed that I am somewhere on the spectrum, and I'm not sure what further clarification would be extracted by seeking a more "refined" diagnosis elsewhere when it's not as if I need meds or whatever.

If you feel it is in your own interests, then you should put your employer in the position where they have no option other than to pursue the complete diagnosis and to fully fund it. They started this track and now (if you feel like phrasing it this way) would leave things in an impossible situation that demands closure - for your personal well-being, to satisfy your colleagues / boss and to complete whatever assessment HR require. I am sure your union rep, personal advocate, GP etc would all support you, if you wanted to pursue a full diagnosis at the employer's expense. (A personal advocate is a named individual, chosen by you, who can accompany you and represent your interests in any formal workplace process - you have a legal right to choose one. It can be a friend, union official, person with medical training, solicitor etc).

On the other hand, if you feel that you are satisfied with the results, you can insist they drop it. Either way, they have put you in the position to control the process, because it is your emotional well-being that is the foremost issue.

Do you have any clarity on WHY they started this? Do they intend to regrade / sack / redeploy you?

Mind if I casually sneak in? I live in Germany, but I'll move to the UK in a week for studying. I already contacted an autism group there because I finally want a diagnosis, and they said I'd have to go to a GP first who'd then redirect me to somebody for diagnosis. They also said this was completely free for me. I have a hard time imagining that - do I really not have to pay anything? Even if I'm not a UK citizen?

Yes, the public health system is completely free at the point of use for all citizens of the European Union. You used to require an E111 health insurance form before travel, now you just need a European Health Insurance Card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_H ... rance_Card). Your government will reimburse the NHS the agreed fee for treatment.

The same applies in reverse - UK citizens can use EU public health centres using a EHIC. They may have to pay, but should be reimbursed by the NHS.

None of this applies to private treatment.

Diagnosis of autism in adulthood is very variable and might not be available in some areas, or only with perseverance.

Some of you who are being "diagnosed" are probably being screened as possibly have Autism. I was and I only found out after pretty much begging CMHT for a report, which I have yet again been refused with no reason given.

If I'd know this, I would have asked my GP to send me to DRC (it might be DRAC?) in Southampton.

So, it looks like I'm starting the process again.