Special needs and the NHS.

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Although my official diagnosis is severe Asperger's, my psychiatrist said I present more like classic autism.

I have severe sensory issues, difficulty with speaking and challenging behaviour.

I've heard of dentists, gynaecologists etc that specialise in treating people who have special needs. However I have never been referred to one.

I had a gynaecological problem and was sent to a regular one. When she attempted to examine me (after me crying my eyes out for fifteen minutes), I ended up screaming, kicking the doctor hard and running back into the changing room. I was banging my head against the wall and screaming / crying for over fifteen minutes and refused to unlock the door until the gynaecologist promised not to touch me again.

Dentist. I haven't been to a dentist for two years as last time I had a massive meltdown just because she touched my mouth.

I have ignored the routine cervical screening test letters for a similar reason: I can't have one unless I am heavily sedated or general anaesthetic.

Also my communication disability means that receptionists and doctors fail to understand what I'm trying to communicate (and they do things like give me aspirin even though I've tried so hard to explain that I'm a haemophiliac).

When I was (so many times) sectioned on the general psych ward, I've had nurses confiscate my phone to force me to speak (I have a text-to-speech app on it). Then when I've started screaming and displaying challenging behaviour because I couldn't communicate clearly, they restrained me and forcibly injected me with haloperidol. This always left me totally nonverbal and extremely traumatised.

How do I get referred to doctors that specialise in special needs patients? I have some health problems but my severe sensory issues and communication disability mean that I cannot access the NHS healthcare.

And how do I get police (who have sectioned me under the Mental Health Act many times), ambulance staff, doctors, nurses etc to understand that I'm autistic and have certain access needs?

Do you have someone to come with you to these medical appointments and help you communicate with doctors/staff and go through the medical procedure more calmly?

Not at the moment but the NAS will hopefully start supporting me soon (they're trained specifically in autism, a lot unlike the useless carers here).

Have you tried card carrying?

The way you've been treated is pretty appalling. We need genuine autism awareness.

am a life long user of NHS special needs dentists, ask for a referal to one from current dentist,they can do it,possibly social worker will be able to as well.
mine is a intelectual disability specialist dentist and am given home check ups by her,then brought into hospital;given midazolam to counteract challenging behavior then general anaesthetic for any dental work she wants to do.

am not sure about gynecoligists; we were never told of a special needs gyn, had refused to go for the tests,and they did what is legaly called a 'best interest decision' as am under the mental capacity act,they said
they coud do it under general anaesthetic but said the risk from having general anaesthetic was actualy higher than ever getting cervical cancer in own case so instead was removed from the gyn testing program and do not get any hassle anymore.
perhaps asking to get removed from the program list is worth looking into if do not like being hassled and are not interested in the test, it is only really meant for people who have/will ever have boyfriends.

as for the other issues,ask social worker to firstly start a communication passport-which is one of these-
http://www.communicationpassports.org.uk/Home/
mine is a small folder just like the ones on that site that is easily carried with us to hospital and given to any medical profesionals,am not sure if individuals can make their own [or if they woud not be thought of as genuine without profesional help] but it is a great help for self as someone who is severely SaL impaired.

the other one to ask social worker to start work on is a hospital passport;
http://www.uhmb.nhs.uk/patients-and-vis ... -passport/
these are for holding all health specific information about self,as well as how behavior may present in any medical environment,what will tolerate and not tolerate etc,this can be kept by support staff or self and given to medical profesionals everytime are seeing them.

mine has been heavily used recently due to having been stuck in high dependency and resus three times in one week from severe epileptic seizures,it doesnt stop us coming across ignorant priks but it does greatly help.

Thanks for the links, I'll look into it. I'm going to also ask to be removed from the cervical screening programme. I've never had sexual intercourse before and I strongly doubt I ever will. The passport scheme looks helpful.

it might be worth also looking into a medic alert bracelet as well,steel maiden as it helps with the police.

theyve changed the design since had got mine years ago from their website but woud recommend the clothy type bracelet if have got sensory issues with metalic types;
http://www.medicalert.org.uk/buy-jewell ... Fabric&p=1

^ Thanks. I'll look into that too.