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Adults Autism Diagnostic Service for Suffolk (ADSS)
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Our ADSS team try to and find out if a person has autism. This is called an assessment. We work with the person, and their family, if that is OK. We are a multi-disciplinary team; this means different people with different skills. We follow NICE guidelines. NICE is the short name for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. They find out what works well in health and social care and write advice about it. The advice says what care and support people using services should have. And it says how those services should work.
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Address:
Autism Diagnostic Service Suffolk, Haymills House, Station Road East, Stowmarket, IP14 1QF
- Reception phone number: 01149 745200 option 2
- What autism is
- What this service does
- The area covered by this service
- How to get an assessment
- The assessment
- After the assessment
- How this service support carers including friends and family
- Our team
- Places
- Contact details
- Urgent help
What autism is
Different names are to talk about autism like:
- Asperger's or Asperger Syndrome
- autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
- autism spectrum conditions (ASC)
We will use the word autism on this webpage.
If a person has autism it means their brain works differently. We do not know why this happens. Autism lasts a person's whole life.
People with autism can still do a lot of things and learn a lot of skills.
Some people with autism will live an independant life. Some people will need some support, and some people will need lots of support.
There is not a cure for autism but there are a lot of things that can help to make life easier.
You cannot tell someone has autism by looking at them.
Some people with autism find it difficult to:
- understand what other people say
- tell people what they need, and how they feel
- meet other people and make new friends
- understand what other people think, and how they feel.
Some people with autism might:
- be very interested in one thing and know a lot about it
- like to only talk about their favourite subject
- like to do some things the same way every day
- copy what other people say
- prefer not to join activities with other people
- be good at remembering information
- do well at school, college and work.
Everyone is different. This means autism will be different for everyone.
What this service does
We have 2 teams:
- the youth team see young people aged 11 – 17 years who have a GP in Suffolk click here for the youth team
- the adult team see people 18 years and older who have a GP in Suffolk.
We try to and find out if a person has autism. We call this an assessment. We work with the person, and their family, if that is OK.
We are a multi-disciplinary team; this means different people with different skills.
We follow NICE guidelines. NICE is the short name for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. They find out what works well in health and social care and write advice about it. The advice says what care and support people using services should have. And it says how those services should work.
The area covered by this service
ADSS see anyone who has a GP in Suffolk.
How to get an assessment
If you are an adult over 25 you can speak to your GP about a referral. Other professionals can also refer you. They need to send a referral form to our Suffolk Access and Assessment Team (AAT):
- Access and Assessment Team (AAT), Mariner House, Handford Road,Ipswich, IP1 2GA)
If you are age 18-25, a referral can be made through the Emotional Wellbeing Hub (EMH). You can do this yourself or ask someone like your parent to do this for you.
The contact details for EMH are:
- 3rd Floor Landmark House, Ipswich, IP1 5PB,
- Telephone: 0345 600 2090,
- Email nmh-tr.ewh@nhs.net
Both AAT and the EMH will look at the referral and will contact you to find out why you think you may be autistic. They can also give advice on other services if they think you need these rather than an autism assessment.
Due to Covid-19 there may be some changes to our current assessment process.
What to expect when referred
A person from the AAT or EMH will contact you. They may ask you a series of questions and decide if they need to pass your referral onto us.
When we receive your referral form, our team looks at the information.
Sometimes we decide there may be another reason for the difficulties you are having that is not autism. We may then refer you to another service for support. We let you know what we have decided.
If we accept your referral for an assessment we will place your name on our waiting list. We will send you some forms to fill in that will tell us more about you.
We ask for your consent to assess you. This document explains more about consent: Information sheet about consent.docx [docx] 180KB
When your name is at the top of our waiting list we will contact you by telephone or letter and arrange a time to meet with you. If there is someone who has known you for a long time you may want to bring them to the assessment to help give us more information.
At the assessment we will explain what a diagnosis of autism may mean. If you want to carry on with the assessment, our multi-disciplinary team will complete a detailed assessment.
After the assessment we will write a report. We will send this to you and your GP explaining the outcome of your assessment. You may or may not receive a diagnosis of autism.
The assessment
We need as much information about you as possible. We try to find out more about you from when you were a child. We will also spend time finding out about the things you find difficult as an adult. We do this by asking questions about you.
With your consent, we will talk to someone who has known you for a very long time. We may ask you to complete questionnaires for us, and we can help you with these. We will also read any past information such as school reports and other assessments that you may have had.
You may need to have more than one appointment with us. This is normal as it can be difficult to diagnose autism, especially if you have had a lot of difficulties in your life. Appointments can last for a few hours but if you are finding you need to stop at all that is fine. You can also have a break from the appointment and come back when you are ready.
Our assessments do not include any x-rays, scans or blood tests.
When we have enough information we can:
- finish our assessment and tell you what we think. If we say you have autism, we call this the diagnosis
- write a report, and send it to you, your GP, and other people you choose.
After the assessment
If you are diagnosed with autism
We will offer you an appointment after we give you your diagnosis. At this appointment we can:
- provide advice and support to help you to understand the diagnosis
- tell you ways that might help you manage the problems. This can include thinking about the things you may find difficult at home, work or in education.
- Tell you about our post-diagnosis group. Although people find the idea of a group hard, it is a great chance to meet other people with autism and to learn from each other. People who have come to the group have always said that it was a scary thing to do, but they are glad that they went.
- We will tell you about other organisations that can help you. This is called signposting.
- There is a waiting list for both a carer’s assessment and our post-diagnosis group.
If you are not diagnosed with autism
We may decide that autism does not explain your difficulties. We will then say that you do not have autism. If this happens, we will take some time to explain to you why we have decided this. We will also tell you of other services that may be able to help you.
Sometimes when a person has had a lot of problems as a child it can be too hard for us to work out what has caused the difficulties they have. We may not be able to say for definite that it is autism. When we are not completely sure we cannot give a diagnosis. There may be lots of other reasons why things have been hard, and we will explain this to you when we talk about our decision.
How this service support carers including friends and family
You may have someone who gives you a lot of support and help. We can offer them a carer’s assessment which will give them a chance to ask questions about autism. They can also ask what else they may be able to do to help you, and what help they can get.
We support carers to understand a diagnosis of autism and what this might mean to the family of the person living with autism.
We will signpost them to organisations that can offer longer term support. We work with Suffolk Family Carers to offer support sessions for families and family carers of people diagnosed with autism.
We are not able to offer them support that lasts for a long time.
Our team
Our multi-disciplinary team is made up of different professionals. That means different people with different skills.
Marcina, Team Manager – She makes sure that we have the right equipment to do our jobs and that all the work gets done. She checks things are done well and everyone is helped at work to do a good job. As a manager she tells people if they do a good job but also helps them if there are problems, to sort things out.
Sarah, Team Administrator – She is usually the first person you speak to if you ring the office. She answers the phone, books appointments and sends out letters.
Chris, Data Technician – He answers the phone if you ring the office and sends out letters.
Judith, Assistant Psychologist – She can help make sense of how people develop, as well as their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Colm and Emma, Clinical Psychologists – They can assess people to see if they have autism. They have a lot of knowledge about how people develop, as well as their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Jane, Assistant Practitioner – She can help adults and their families to understand more about autism and what help or support is available. She can also assess people to see if they have autism.
Lisa, Senior Mental Health Nurse – She can assess people to see if they have autism. She might be one of the first people you see for an appointment. Lisa will ask you about how you are feeling such as feeling sad or worried and she can get some help for you with this.
Trudie, Senior Practitioner – She can assess people to see if they have autism. She can give advice about local services, benefits, housing, employment and training opportunities. She can also support and give advice to carers of people with autism.
Places
We will try to see you close to your home. Click the picture buttons below to see photos of the places we use for appointments.
- Bury St Edmunds
- Ipswich
- Stowmarket
- Sudbury
Contact details
Please contact the team via any of the methods below:
Postal address
Autism Diagnostic Service Suffolk
Haymills House,
Station Road East,
Stowmarket
IP14 1QF
Telephone
01149 745200 option 2
Autism-Diagnosis-Service@nsft.nhs.uk