Girls, women and autism

Autism Diagnostic Service Suffolk

Our Autism Diagnostic Service provides assessments to identify if a person has autism or not. We have a youth team who provide assessments for young people between the ages of 11 and 18. We have an adult team who provide assessments for those aged 18 and over. If we diagnose somebody with autism, we offer advice and short term limited support to help them, and their family, to understand their diagnosis. Our team will explore ways that might help manage difficulties or challenges faced at home, work or in education.

Service Manager Lead: Community Team Manager
Service Contact: 01449 745389

Address:
Haymills House, Station Road East, Stowmarket, IP14 1RQ
Service hours: Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm

What this service offers

When we receive a referral form, we review the information. If there is not enough information to show that an autism assessment is needed, we will not accept the referral. We might return the referral, ask for more information or send the referral to another service for support if we think this would be helpful.

When a referral is accepted the name of the person is placed on a waiting list for an autism assessment. The waiting list is long, but we will see the person as soon as we can. While the person is waiting, we provide information about what happens during an autism assessment and ask for the persons consent. When we are able to see the person, we will contact them or their parent/carer by telephone or letter and arrange where and when to meet.

We try to meet people as close to their home as possible. We have clinics in Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Ipswich.

Our teams complete a full assessment, working with the person and important people in their lives, before we decide if autism is the correct diagnosis for the person.

When the assessment is finished, we will write a report and send this to the person and their GP. The report explains our decision and whether a diagnosis of autism has been given.

Find resources, interactive materials, and more here Autism Diagnostic Service | Norfolk and Suffolk NHS (nsft.nhs.uk)

Access this service

If you would like to be referred to the Autism Service you, (or your parent/ carer) can speak to your GP or another professional. This could be a School Nurse, Social Worker or other health professionals like a Speech and Language Therapist. A referral can be made if you, and the professional you speak to, agree it is needed. A referral form needs to be completed by a professional (your GP has referral forms; other professionals can ask the autism service for these)

If a young person is aged between 11 and 25 years old the referral form should be sent to: The Emotional Wellbeing Hub (EWH): 3^rd Floor Landmark House, Ipswich, IP1 5PB

If the person is over 25 years old the referral form should be sent to: The Access and Assessment Team (AAT). (Click here for contact details - Access and Assessment Team (AAT), Mariner House, Handford Road, Ipswich, IP1 2GA.

Visiting and onsite facilities

Our main office is at Haymills House, Station Road East, Stowmarket, IP14 1RQ.

We also have clinics in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.

All our clinics are accessible and have limited parking available. Reserved parking is available for those with disabilities.

How this service support carers including friends and family

With consent, we ask family and/or important people in the person’s life for information to help in the assessment process.

We can provide information about where to access carer assessments for people aged 18 and above.

We support families and carers to understand a diagnosis of autism and what this might mean. We can provide information about local and national organisations that that can offer short, and longer-term support.

We work with Suffolk Family Carers to offer support sessions and training for families and carers of people diagnosed with autism.

Urgent help

Please be aware this is not a crisis service. If you have urgent concerns about a child/young person's physical condition, please contact 111 or request they attend Accident & Emergency.

The MEED (Medical Emergencies in Eating Disorders) Guidance provides a framework for evaluation of physical health risk in individuals with eating disturbance: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/campaigning-for-better-mental-health-policy/college-reports/2022-college-reports/cr233

For urgent mental health support, call 111 and select the mental health option (24-hours/day). If you are with someone who has self-harmed or attempted to end their life, call 999 and stay with them until the ambulance arrives.

For more information, see Help in a Crisis.

Why do some people think that Autism is a “boy thing”

When autism was first talked about it was to describe a group of boys who had been noticed behaving in a similar way. How autism was then diagnosed was based on these descriptions.

Over time new information has been added to our ideas of what autism looks like.

Often autistic women and girls are missed or misdiagnosed with something else like depression or personality disorder. This is often because it does not fit this traditional male pattern.

Lots of autistic women have been seen by doctors for their mental health and prescribed tablets. A lot of autistic women will say that the mental health diagnosis they were given never seemed to fully explain their difficulties.

When we look at diagnosing adults with autism, the evidence is that the average age that women are diagnosed is older than the average age for men.

The difficulties with social communication and social interaction, and flexibility of thought are still there, but may look very different.

Girls may be:

Better at copying other’ behaviour
More sociable
May communicate but less likely to do ‘social chit chat’
May be able to make a special friendship
More involved in pretend play and possibly have a more active imagination
May have similar interests to peers but may have a different quality or intensity of interest
Use intelligence in social interactions rather than intuition
Can copy other socially successful individuals
May seem to be coping but are often acting in order to fit in
Maybe better at masking difficulties
More likely to have been misdiagnosed with another problem such as an eating disorder, personality disorder, or OCD

Puberty and menopause

Puberty and menopause are significant times for girls and women. During these times there are a lot of changes in the female body and in how the person looks. Sensory sensitivities may increase. Emotions may seem more out of control. It is also impossible to know when these natural parts of life will actually happen. When a girl starts her periods, she will have to get used to using sanitary products which may feel uncomfortable.

Although puberty in autistic girls has been thought about in the literature, the effects of menopause on autistic women is only just starting to be thought about by researchers and is a very new area of knowledge.