There are absolutely loads of kids getting extremely questionable private ADHD/autism diagnoses. It's such a problem that some of these companies have been shut down after being reported to the CQC.Originally Posted by Magic
There are absolutely loads of kids getting extremely questionable private ADHD/autism diagnoses. It's such a problem that some of these companies have been shut down after being reported to the CQC.
You're so naive on this it's hilarious.
It costs about 2 grand to get assessed and can be done on finance. DLA can be £300-400 every 4 weeks.
There's no doubt a small minority have been misdiagnosed privately, in the same way it happens on the NHS.
Medication is really the only benefit of an ADHD diagnosis and that makes an enormous difference to quality of life.
Most of these diagnosis farms are one doctor with an army of random alphabet soup people doing the assessments. That is inherently different to the way the NHS diagnostic system works so yes, there is a "moral" difference.
Not all private ADHD/autism services are set up like this and some of them are perfectly good. Many are not.
It's hardly surprising that once you introduce direct payment you attract the more dubious members of the profession.
It's the same with parents paying a fortune to see some Harley street rheumatologist to get diagnoses like "periodic fever syndrome" because the parents can't accept they catch viruses like every other child on earth.
I'm naive? You think there's legions of fraudsters getting their children privately misdiagnosed with a brain development disorder just so they can upgrade their Sky package.
ADHD is harder to get DLA / PIP for, but it can be done.
Why not?
It's not a "small minority". There is a big incentive for private companies to give people what they want because it brings in business. Parents talk and will go to the company who gave their friend's kid the diagnosis they wanted.
This is literally my job, and my wife's who is a sendco and leads a specialist resource base for kids with these problems. A LOT of these diagnoses are extremely questionable, as are the subsequent practices of these companies regarding the kinds of medications they are recommending GP's to prescribe.
Funny part is, you are all defaulting to the MENTAL HEALTH cases when arguing why the system is correct even though, according to you, that is the only sector where it is possible to get medication with a private diagnosis only.
What about someone with anal fissures? Why would the private diagnosis alone not be ok there?
Reverse it: only mental health gets extra scrutiny because the whole thing is a racket.
Now you have a reasonable system.
Yes, naive. Benefit fraud is rife in this country and this is just one strand of it. We will likely never know the numbers, because diagnosing Autism isn't straight forward.
What's your job? You're a pediatrician. Your job is to fix things that are broken, but only in smaller people. And like most GPs, you hate complex neurological problems because they can't be fixed or entirely understood.
Mate come on. I don't doubt it's rife but to suggest that's the main reason why people are seeking a diagnosis in high numbers is bonkers.
I didn't say that was the case at any point.
You said 'people often go private when they are rejected by the NHS' and when I asked why you said 'benefits'.
Bypassing the point is people aren't even getting seen at all by the NHS, hence why they are going private. So moot.
For what it's worth, I don't even think the mum of my daughters classmate is grifting. I think she believes her daughter has autism. However, the NHS disagreed (and again on appeal) and she went off and got a private diagnosis which entitles her to benefits. Those are the facts of the situation.
Have you seen some of the rejections? Ranges from GPs not believing it's real to needing to get a grip to bipolar to depression to female. Most of them don't even know the symptoms.
The point is that you don't need to go private for anal fissures because it's very easy for it to be treated on the NHS. You'd need to suggest a condition that is a) expensive to diagnose b) relatively easy to manage on a continuing basis.
Sleep disorders come to mind, and a quick google suggests that shared care is indeed an option there and they use the same drugs as ADHD. Feel free to correct, RL.
I don't necessarily disagree. I think there are cases where it's potentially beneficial all round, although I expect there's arguments to be made about how fair it is. Are people who can't afford the private fee going to end up bumped down the list for treatment ad infinitum whilst they are waiting for assessment, whilst those who can pay the small (comparative to the cost of treatment) private assessment fees overtake them in the queue?
As I said, I think things like ADHD/autism where the diagnoses are inherently subjective are actually less appropriate for this sort of system.
But it is bullshit that people seeking these diagnoses have access to this pathway when NOBODY else does, purely as a way to hide the fact the government have completely failed to deliver an appropriate service.
Yes even if you wanted, you cannot go private. Why?
That I agree with. Until the NHS gets their shit together though, people should be allowed the alternative. Waiting one and a half years is madness.
Not sure I get your point but you definitely could get your anal fissures treated privately, fwiw
I said benefits, help at school and care plans, if we're going to be honest.
£400 a month is not chump change. If you think your kid has autism, you want that money. You also want the help at school. Ultimately, it's the job of the NHS to assess if they do or do not have Autism. Where the answer is no, that should be the end of it. You certainly shouldn't be able to pay a private company a couple of grand to contradict that. Not least because their is obviously a financial insensitive for them to do so.
The reason people want the diagnosis doesn't even matter. Some will be genuine, some won't, the outcome is the same.
One and a half years
NHS waiting lists for ADHD/autism assessments for kids round here are 5+ years.
Also there are adults in their 50s getting privately diagnosed and then getting arrangements at their jobs like 'must work with headphones on at all times, cannot be approached with additional work' despite managing alright before.
I'd suggest the majority of FM players have some level of ADHD/Autism going on, maybe we should all get diagnosed regardless of how well we've coped so far in our adult lives.
I was going by what James had said. That's madness.One and a half years
NHS waiting lists for ADHD/autism assessments for kids round here are 5+ years.
There is definitely lots of piss taking. In the University, kids could get extra time for exams if they had a doctor say so. Won't you know, apparently 40% (and rising) of our students had mental health issues.
With that said, I would prefer if they cut all the nonsense accomodations instead of trying to stop people from getting diagnosed.
Magic presumably isn't old enough to access any financial benefits due to having only been born yesterday.
As the most mentally deficient member of our board, I think that his opinion should be considered on this matter.
Don't be too hard on yourself bro.
Updated it for you.
Businesses profiting from diagnosing kids with Autism explains a lot.
This is the theory. The reality is somewhat different.
The 'hard' actually quantifiable conditions have increased pretty much as you would expect, and the 'soft' wishy-washy my child is a cunt conditions have exploded because of perverse incentives. The government could simply revert back to the 2016 welfare system and save itself tens of billions lol.
My Mrs started working with SEN kids towards the end of 2023 and a few weeks in said it opened her eyes about our youngest. He ticks a lot of boxes that the kids she also works with do. We got onto the school and his teacher agreed that she thought something was there, but the 'SENCO lead' had to do the report. The report then gets sent off to the relevant people who will look into the evidence provided and seek out their own info. This was filled out in March time. We only just received a copied in response to the school last week, telling them their report was shite.
We are now in the same position of looking at getting him a private diagnosis, because the other way is reapplying and waiting 2+ years(low end estimate) again. It does exactly feel like you almost have to buy the diagnosis. We want him getting the help and an EHCP in place before they start buggering about with SATS and secondary school.
It's hard to be sure as neither of us are near qualified to insist that he is on the spectrum, but potentially waiting years to get any answers from the NHS has us looking.
EDIT: Seems I've missed a new page.
Last edited by Gray Fox; 15-01-2025 at 10:44 PM.
Mind and claim your millions of benefits xxx
Without wanting to be dismissive of the whole thing, don't you have to be fairly far gone beyond 'ticking a lot of boxes' to actually get these plans?
She's not up to ask but I believe you need the diagnosis to get the plan. Hence why paying for it becomes so appealing.
Had a cold the other week, blew my nose at some point which made my ear start ringing and it's not stopped.
I have had ear infections/ear drum perforations before so I'm hoping it's something like that rather than my brain thinking I need to hear this high pitched noise for the rest of my days.
I'm bored of this stage of the flu which is consistently blocked nose and mouth breathing when sleeping. I woke up at 4am with the Sahara in my mouth and congested sinuses. Not to mention the unending fatigue which still leaves me knocked out after any movement.
This is correct. However, based on my limited experience with it, once you have the EHCP, it's still no guarantee that it will make drastic changes to the child's support t school.
High quality chicken stock (not sure if they do this in Deutschland but presumably they do). For best results run some pepperoni or chorizo through the cooking, and black pepper.
They’re needed if you want to move to an SEND school, we get a lot of kids getting them for Y6 so they don’t end up in a mainstream high school.
Living where I do in a shithole and mixing with various characters from different backgrounds, I can tell you that it’s not always fair with benefits.
You see people in the UK who genuinely have mental health issues getting no support. So they go towards drugs and alcohol.
You see people from abroad with mental health issues getting all the mental support and benefits financially.
I’m not trying to sound like Donald Trump here but it’s true. If you go to the inner cities and chat to people.
Labour are saying mental health issues aren’t enough to keep people out of work, I don’t think they’ve ever had a mental health issue themselves. I hope they never will.
I don’t have a dose at the minute but that sounds nice.
Basically a good chicken soup? I could be down with this.
Woke up this morning to discover my coccyx has blown to bits. Brilliant.
You know you're getting old when sleeping becomes a high impact sport.
Could be shagging.
Getting pegged?
Bit of both.
Yeah, but with the emphasis on good, and don't both with the knodel unless you're really up for some starchy action.
Reply With Quote
