Experiences of diagnosing autism spectrum disorder: A survey of professionals in the United Kingdom

What is it about?

Existing research on experiences of autism diagnosis has tended to focus on the opinions and perspectives of adults or parents (who have sought an autism diagnosis for themselves or their children). The aim of the current study was to find out about the views and experiences of professionals who are involved in diagnosing autism (in children and/or adults). A total of 116 professionals (most commonly psychologists, speech and language therapists, and paediatricians) in the United Kingdom completed an online survey. They were asked for their views on service accessibility (e.g., how easy it was for patients to get an appointment), the diagnostic process (e.g., how helpful the tests/tools used to diagnose autism are), and post-diagnostic support (e.g., whether they felt they were offering enough help/support to patients, or whether they felt they could appropriately direct patients to get the help/support they needed). Our results showed that professionals faced a number of challenges, which made it difficult to provide a timely and appropriate autism diagnosis to their patients. For example, 40% of services were not able to provide assessments as quickly as they should. Also, the tools used to diagnose autism were felt to be inadequate at detecting autism in some cases (e.g., when diagnosing women, or adults without learning disabilities). Finally, and in line with the reports of parents and adults, professionals noted that the help and support offered to patients post-diagnosis was an area of significant concern. In particular, professionals felt that the long-term support offered to individuals and their families was dissatisfactory and more needed to be done in this regard.

Featured Image