South Essex Aspergers Service

We are a multi-disciplinary team with training, knowledge and experience of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We provide diagnostic assessments and signposting for individuals living In the South Essex area. For those with a diagnosis with ASD we can also offer some limited additional support in groups.

What to expect
When a referral is received by the service it will be placed on a list for screening.
For Intervention referrals, once screened we will be in touch to let you know what we may be able to offer as service or signpost to other services if more appropriate.

For diagnostic referrals, once your referral is screened we will be in touch asking you to complete and return 3 questionnaires (If not already included in the referral) which will be sent to you via post. This is important information gathering to establish suitability for a full diagnostic assessment.

Once questionnaires are received we will contact you with one of the following responses:

• You meet the criteria for assessment and you will be placed on our waiting list for a diagnostic assessment.
• We do not feel a diagnostic assessment is required or advised and you will be discharged from our service. We will also signpost you to services that we feel are more suitable.
• It Is unclear whether you meet the criteria for assessment so we will either send you additional questions to complete via post or invite you for an appointment to gather this information. Once complete, we will review within our multi-disciplinary team.

We do have a significant waiting list. The wait starts from the date we receive referrals. We aim to send a letter periodically to reassure you that we know you are waiting for an assessment. We will contact you when you reach the top of the waiting list to arrange your assessment appointment. Please note, any waiting times are an estimate and may vary with service demand and staff capacity. Services like ours nationwide are experiencing high volumes of referrals and also have significant wait times. We are working with commissioners to improve this situation for local individuals and families.

We will ask to speak with an informant as part of the diagnostic assessment. An informant is someone who has known you well since you were young (usually a parent or family member). This is because Autism is considered a neurodevelopmental condition, so we need to explore which of your difficulties and experiences have been present since childhood and how these may have changed over time.

Your diagnostic assessment will usually take place across one appointment which can last up to 5-6 hours, with a Clinical Psychologist or another member of our team. They will typically take place face to face but we also use online appointments via Microsoft Teams. The team will aim to make any reasonable adjustments according to need. This may include splitting the assessment up over a series of appointments.

After your assessment, your assessor will
signpost to useful services and resources, such as self-help information and local support, to help with psychological, lifestyle, behavioural, educational and occupational needs.

If you receive a diagnosis of ASD, your assessor will also provide you with information about the intervention support that our service could offer.

We accept referrals through the Primary Care Network (PCN) and First Response Teams (FRT) as well as other Mental Health professionals. Unfortunately we do not accept referrals directly from GPs or from individuals themselves.
We also accept referrals from mental health professionals including Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Therapists.

To access this service, you must be registered to a GP within the South Essex boundary. We can accept referrals for those who live within the boundary, and are not registered to any GP (including homeless people, people within the travelling community and refugees), but we would encourage these individuals to register with a local GP to access additional support.

You must be 18 years of age, but we may accept your referral if you are 17, but will be 18 by the time you are seen for an initial assessment.

It is essential to ensure that what is offered is equitable and fair to all service users and therefore we are declining requests to prioritise or expedite referrals. We require a completed referral form or a detailed assessment and service specific screening tool to be completed.

This must include:

• Examples of difficulties with social communication or interactions, and restricted or repetitive behaviours or interests
• Evidence or examples that this was present in childhood
• Evidence of impairment in functioning e.g. which aspects of the patient’s life are impacted by the symptoms they perceive to be Autism.
  If we do not receive this information at any point in the screening process then the referral will be rejected.