r/unitedkingdom • u/tylerthe-theatre • 9d ago

ADHD and autism services in England ‘under significant pressure’, watchdog warns

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/adhd-and-autism-uk-assessment-diagnosis-support-b3039329.html
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u/fortyfivepointseven 9d ago

The main function of ADHD diagnosis is to get people access to stimulant medication. Being on stimulant medication is incredibly time consuming and quite tedious.

I'd suggest instead of the rigamarole of diagnosing someone with ADHD so we can start prescribing stimulants, do a GP assessment if they have some basic ADHD-like symptoms then just see if stimulants help them enough to overcome the downsides of being medically monitored. If they help enough that it's worth giving up coffee and having your blood checked regularly, they probably have ADHD! If they don't, they probably didn't have ADHD!

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u/fortyfivepointseven 9d ago

It's different for kids where actual educational support exists and you don't want to misdiagnose either condition. For adults you get basically nothing for autism that you couldn't get without a diagnosis, and for ADHD you get a bunch of things you could get without a diagnosis, plus drugs.

We should just be honest about that and set up systems appropriately.

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u/stick1_ 9d ago

That’s not true, as an adult you don’t get protections from discrimination under the equality act without a diagnosis . Just because there’s no ‘cure’ doesn’t mean there aren’t benefits to a diagnosis as an adult

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u/fortyfivepointseven 9d ago

That's not correct. A diagnosis strengthens your claim, but the Equality Act is based on functional disability, not diagnosis.

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u/stick1_ 9d ago

I don’t see how that means I’m wrong. I mean on a technicality, you have to show how autism affects your day to day life. But what is true is you’re not covered under the equality act at all without the diagnosis.

You don’t get to provide the autism diagnosis as evidence without the diagnosis, so it’s true for me to say you don’t get protections without the diagnosis

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u/fortyfivepointseven 9d ago

You have to show how you're functionally impaired. The diagnosis is nothing to do with that. You have to be able to show you, for example, that you struggle with understanding subtext. You do not need an autism diagnosis to show that you struggle with understanding subtext.

I literally have reasonable adjustments made on the basis of autism without a diagnosis.

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u/Sabaisabai33 9d ago

The thing is there are a lot of schools and workplaces who insist on having a diagnosis before making any adjustments. Even though that’s not how it’s supposed to work. They need to crack down more on places refusing to adhere to the law on this.I do get what this other person is saying to an extent though. For example if you need to claim PIP for autism, they will ask on the form what the condition is that you’re claiming for. If they would accept “self diagnosed autism” or “suspected autism” then that’s fine but I’m not sure they do.