What do you need in order to qualify as an ASD assessor?

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MrGrumpy
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17 Jul 2014, 3:25 pm

I seriously believe that self-diagnosed Aspies are wide open to being ripped off by self-qualified 'experts'.

Autism is on the fringes of mainstream medical/psychological practice, and any diagnosis of ASD is at best controversial.

Not long ago, there was a thread on here which was about the risk of previously confirmed Aspies being stripped of their 'status' because the diagnostic criteria had been updated.

What is the 'status' of a diagnosis which is provided by a self-proclaimed autism service organisation?

Aspendos
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17 Jul 2014, 6:37 pm

MrGrumpy wrote:

How do you define "self-qualified 'expert'" and "self-proclaimed autism service organisation"?

You live in England, so most autistics will get a diagnosis through the NHS. I would be more worried that in the UK apparently not only psychiatrists and other professionals trained to an equally high level are allowed to give an autism diagnosis, but even nurses and the like. I seem to remember reading that on WP.

MrGrumpy
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19 Jul 2014, 9:33 am

Aspendos wrote:

in the UK apparently not only psychiatrists and other professionals trained to an equally high level are allowed to give an autism diagnosis, but even nurses and the like

That's precisely my point - what do you need in order to qualify as an ASD assessor? And, as a point of interest, it is extremely difficult to get the UK NHS to take seriously the possibility of diagnosing a previously undiagnosed adult. In the UK, Autism in all its forms, is regarded as a childhood issue, and it is the education authorities who deal with it. If you have made it to adulthood without needing help, then, usually, no help is available, and judging from things I have read on WP, there is a very similar outlook in the US.

Commercially-operated ASD clinics are rare in the UK - we tend to regard private medicine as being out of the financial reach of ordinary working people.

But it is common for a self-diagnosed Aspie to have a desperate need to have the self-diagnosis confirmed by - who? It sometimes seems that anybody will do, so long as they wear a white coat, and carry an official-looking clipboard with an official-looking questionnaire.

There are several Swedish people on here who seem to enjoy a better reception from their own national health service than most of us, but at the end of the day, any ASD diagnosis is little more than a box-ticking operation which can be carried out by anyone who has taken the trouble to read the literature.

Rocket123
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19 Jul 2014, 12:34 pm

Aspendos wrote:

How do you define "self-qualified 'expert'" and "self-proclaimed autism service organisation"?

Personally, I would minimally be looking for a clinical psychologist (with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology) with experience assessing people, in my specific age range. I would be looking for someone with experience with various neuropsychological testing instruments who has experience distinguishing between ASD and other things (e.g. one or more Personality Disorders).

Aspendos
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19 Jul 2014, 12:52 pm

Rocket123 wrote:

Aspendos wrote:

How do you define "self-qualified 'expert'" and "self-proclaimed autism service organisation"?

Me too. But the OP seems to know of people who pass themselves off as "experts" without having any of these qualifications. No one working in the NHS is "self-qualified" or "self-proclaimed", although they may be qualified to a much lesser standard than professionals assessing autism in other countries.

MrGrumpy
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19 Jul 2014, 12:56 pm

Aspendos - it was you who pointed out that in the UK, nhs nurses are apparently allowed to conduct ASD assessments. Until you mentioned it, I was unaware...

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StarTrekker
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19 Jul 2014, 1:02 pm

What sort of person would you deem qualified to provide a diagnosis MrGrumpy?

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Aspendos
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19 Jul 2014, 1:04 pm

MrGrumpy wrote:

Aspendos - it was you who pointed out that in the UK, nhs nurses are apparently allowed to conduct ASD assessments. Until you mentioned it, I was unaware...

But who do you speak of? Who are these self-qualified experts and self-proclaimed autism service organizations? Who or what are you referring to?

MrGrumpy
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19 Jul 2014, 1:08 pm

StarTrekker wrote:

What sort of person would you deem qualified to provide a diagnosis MrGrumpy?

Anybody who is capable of reading and understanding the most recent set of diagnostic criteria.

There is no requirement for any kind of medical or psychological knowledge or training.

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MrGrumpy
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19 Jul 2014, 1:17 pm

Aspendos wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

Aspendos - it was you who pointed out that in the UK, nhs nurses are apparently allowed to conduct ASD assessments. Until you mentioned it, I was unaware...

But who do you speak of? Who are these self-qualified experts and self-proclaimed autism service organizations? Who or what are you referring to?

It's a good question. I wish I knew the answer. Some years ago, I paid good money to a guy who wore a posh suit and a bow-tie and had rented a room in a posh private clinic. A few weeks later, he became unavailable, and his website disappeared. When I told my (nhs) GP, he more or less laughed out loud.

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Aspendos
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19 Jul 2014, 2:06 pm

MrGrumpy wrote:

Aspendos wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

Aspendos - it was you who pointed out that in the UK, nhs nurses are apparently allowed to conduct ASD assessments. Until you mentioned it, I was unaware...

But who do you speak of? Who are these self-qualified experts and self-proclaimed autism service organizations? Who or what are you referring to?

Okay. I never heard of anything like that. What did the clinic say he worked out of?

MrGrumpy
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19 Jul 2014, 2:33 pm

Aspendos wrote:

What did the clinic say he worked out of?

I didn't bother to ask

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Rocket123
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19 Jul 2014, 2:34 pm

MrGrumpy wrote:

Anybody who is capable of reading and understanding the most recent set of diagnostic criteria.

There is no requirement for any kind of medical or psychological knowledge or training.

Well, your comment, "I seriously believe that self-diagnosed Aspies are wide open to being ripped off by self-qualified 'experts'" is consistent with the above statement.

In my opinion, you need a higher bar in order to avoid being "ripped off by self-qualified 'experts'".

Aspendos
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19 Jul 2014, 4:13 pm

MrGrumpy wrote:

Aspendos wrote:

What did the clinic say he worked out of?

I didn't bother to ask

Oookkkkaaaayyyyyyy. Instead, years later, you make a post on Wrong Planet - asking *us* ...

Rocket123 wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

Anybody who is capable of reading and understanding the most recent set of diagnostic criteria.

There is no requirement for any kind of medical or psychological knowledge or training.

You can't get a valid diagnosis from just anybody. And nothing of the sort has happened to anyone else on Wrong Planet, as far as I'm aware. Otherwise, all of us could just diagnose each other.

MrGrumpy
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21 Jul 2014, 9:28 am

Aspendos wrote:

You can't get a valid diagnosis from just anybody. And nothing of the sort has happened to anyone else on Wrong Planet, as far as I'm aware. Otherwise, all of us could just diagnose each other

There has been no response on this thread from anybody who knows of any regulatory requirements about the business of diagnosing adult ASD and I suspect that no such requirements exist - I would be very happy to be proved wrong.

I am not alone on WP in believing that, for adults, a self-diagnosis is no less 'valid' than any other, and I think that there are indeed quite a few people on here who would have the expertise to complete an ASD diagnostic questionnaire on somebody else's behalf.

I don't believe the guy with the bow-tie was a crook - he must have had some kind of qualifications - he labelled himself as a neurologist, and he prescribed me with Ritalin for my AD(H)D (although it is true to say that both the pharmacist and the GP were extremely doubtful about dealing with his prescriptions, and both of them felt it necessary to 'make enquiries' before proceeding). His relationship with the clinic was strictly commercial - he rented a room from them once a month so that he had a posh-sounding address to work from. Hopefully the clinic would have checked his qualifications, but they would have accepted no responsibility for his work. The word on the grapevine at the time was that he had killed himself because of some kind of irregularity in his conduct as an expert witness in some kind of court case.

One of the symptoms of Aspergers is that we have a tendency to take things very literally, and if someone puts out a sign offering assessments for ASD, we are unlikely to doubt their ability to to deliver the goods.

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Rocket123
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21 Jul 2014, 10:13 am

MrGrumpy wrote:

One of the symptoms of Aspergers is that we have a tendency to take things very literally, and if someone puts out a sign offering assessments for ASD, we are unlikely to doubt their ability to to deliver the goods.

Not me. I am skeptical of nearly everyone -- including the Clinical Psychologist who diagnosed me last year.

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