What does a Right to Choose adult autism assessment look like?

What to expect during your autism assessment with ProblemShared

After being referred to our service by your GP, getting an autism assessment with ProblemShared is simple. Here are the steps you can expect to take on your assessment journey:

1. Pre-Assessment Questionnaire

• You will receive an email confirming that your referral to our service has been accepted, and asking you to complete some pre-assessment forms.
• One of these forms is the Pre-Assessment Questionnaire. Take some time to complete it carefully, as it will help our clinical team to get to know you and understand your situation better.

2. Informant Questionnaire

• The second form is called the Informant Questionnaire. This needs to be completed by your informant.
• An informant is someone who has known you since early childhood, like a parent or carer.
• You need to download the Informant Questionnaire from your client dashboard and send it to your informant to complete. When they are finished, they can send it back to you to re-upload onto your client dashboard.

Once both your Pre-Assessment Questionnaire and Informant Questionnaire have been completed and uploaded onto your client dashboard, you will receive another email with the date and time of your autism assessment sessions.

3. First session: Informant Interview

• One of our clinicians will interview your informant in a session called an Informant Interview. The Informant Interview will take place via our secure video conferencing platform and last approximately 3 hours.  
• You can be present too, if you wish, but you don't have to be.  
• The Informant Interview helps our practitioners to get a clearer picture of the challenges you faced during childhood. This information, combined with information gathered during your observational assessment, will help our practitioners with the process of diagnosis.  

4. Second session: Observation Session  

• The observation session will be overseen by a different clinician to the one who completed your Informant Interview. This is because of our commitment to quality of care. It's a way to achieve a second expert opinion during your autism assessment.
• The observation session will take place via our secure video conferencing platform and consist of some activities and tasks that the practitioner will ask you to complete. These are not tests, and there are no right or wrong answers. Our clinicians are simply trying to discover more about your situation to ensure they can conduct a robust assessment.

5. Third session: Feedback Session

• During your feedback session, the practitioner who carried out your observation session will discuss the outcome of your autism assessment with you. They will tell you whether you have been diagnosed with autism or not.
• A full report of your autism assessment will be sent to you via email no later than 4 weeks after your feedback session.

How to prepare for your autism assessment with ProblemShared

Seeking a formal assessment can be a daunting process. However, preparing for your autism assessment can help ease some of the anxiety surrounding it.

Here are some tips on how to best prepare for your assessment with ProblemShared:

• Do some research. Before embarking on an autism assessment journey, you could take some time to familiarise yourself with the common traits and behaviours associated with autism, to gain a better understanding of the condition.

• Keep a journal. It can be helpful to keep a journal or diary leading up to your assessment where you write down any observations or experiences that relate to social interactions, communication, or social sensory sensitivities. This information could be helpful during your assessment, as it provides concrete examples of how these challenges affect your daily life.

• Gather information about your childhood. As an adult seeking an autism diagnosis, providing information about your childhood is crucial in aiding professionals in making an accurate diagnosis. Try reaching out to family members or caregivers who knew you as a child and ask them about any potential developmental delays or differences they may have noticed. Our clinicians recommend looking at childhood photographs to help jog your memory of your early development.

Ongoing care and support for clients who are diagnosed with autism

If you receive an autism diagnosis following your assessment with us, we offer a range of ongoing support options to our clients. Our clinicians can prescribe medication where appropriate, and we provide psychoeducation workshops where you can learn more about your diagnosis.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about Right to Choose, referral, or the assessment process in general, you can head to the Resources section of our website, or explore our FAQs.