Due to the work we are doing around the Autism and ADHD assessment pathway in York and North Yorkshire, we get asked this question A LOT.
To break the situation down, we developed a flow chart to explain the situation. We have updated this to reflect a change from October 2023.
On 26th September, GPs were sent a letter informing them that the first criteria had changed. Now, the criteria around ‘immediate risk of harm to self or others’ has been removed from the Do It Profiler entirely.
Instead, Community Mental Health Teams are the gatekeepers of referrals for autism and ADHD. This has reduced the number of people eligible for referral as it is difficult to gain access to CMHTs and we believe they have their own waiting lists to access their services (approximately 9 months). We are also concerned that mental health teams lack the training, awareness and skill required to identify and/or understand neurodivergence in their patients as the results of several coroners reports have revealed.
Timescales for Waiting List 1
The Retreat have confirmed in January 2024 that the waiting list for assessment is now 3.1 years for ADHD and 3.2 years for autism. This is the waiting time for Waiting List 1 only.
