right to choose

shrinkydink
shrinkydink Community member Posts: 6 Listener
in Autism and neurodiversity

hi i have been on the nhs list for an autism assessment for a long time, was told that it would be soon but they have change it again to at least another year. my cmht spoke to them and they suggested using right to choose as this might be quicker. my support worker rang the company that offer the assessment through right to choose and explained to them i have selective mutism and would need to answer questions by writing down and this is the easiest way to communicate. they said they cant do an assessment for me because of this. does anyone know if this is legal surely being unable to communicate through speech shouldnt be a reason to refuse an assessment for autism. thankyou

Comments

  • Rachel_Scope
    Rachel_Scope Posts: 1,059 Online Community Coordinator

    Hi @shrinkydink. Sorry you're having issues with the assessment. May I ask which company your support worker called?

  • shrinkydink
    shrinkydink Community member Posts: 6 Listener

    thankyou for you reply. im unsure but will find out. it seems wrong that they will not make adjustments for communication when they are doing autism assessments.

  • Biblioklept
    Biblioklept Community member Posts: 5,232 Championing
    edited August 15

    From memory some of the autism assessment is evaluating how you talk and speech patterns, conversation responses and they sometimes, especially for children but also adults, have a speech therapist as part of the assessment team which might be part of the reason. They assess people who are non-verbal and people with all manner of speech delay and impediments, including selective mutism. I'm wondering if they'd be happier to do it with the understanding that you might go silent and not be able to reply (at which point they couldn't refuse you writing it down because you're there!)

    A lot of right to choose providers do assessments via video too so might not have facilities for you to write a response.

    Don't forget you can probably try the right to choose option to speed it up and continue on the NHS waiting list too @shrinkydink ❤️

  • shrinkydink
    shrinkydink Community member Posts: 6 Listener

    thanks for the long reply. i thought having the autism assessment would also shed a light on my selective mutism, at the moment i have no help to understand what it is. i dont think my cmht get that i know what i need to say but nothing comes out like its stuck inside, they said maybe if we take away pen and paper you will be able to speak and that just made me realise they dont understand. feel alone with it all

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