Adult ASD Assessments Canberra

Adult ASD Assessments - Process

Please note that Dr Connor is now fully booked for all assessments until the end July 2023, and is not taking further referrals at this stage - even for wait list. Dr Connor anticipates that she will reopen for bookings for the period August-December 2023, in April 2023. Please continue to consult the MAIN page of the website to receive updates in regard to when Dr Connor has re-opened for bookings.  Please do not phone and leave a voice mail, as Dr Connor is unable to respond via phone at the moment.  Dr Connor is happy to answer quesitons via Email, however.

 The Autism Spectrum Disorder assessments, unfortunately, are expensive, due to the hours involved to reach a conclusion – but much less costly for adults than for children.

When I perform an adult ASD assessment, I undertake the following:

• Interview with individual if capable (3 hours) - for full life history and also assessment against DSM-V criteria (on some occasions more time is required;
• Interviews with other close relatives (parent? sister? Brother? partner ) if possible. (1 hour usually)
• Inventory completion: I ask the client to complete some relevant inventories (client can do these at home) (included in the report cost).
• Reading and review of prior documentation and reports.

As a part of the assessment, I prefer to prepare a report (sometimes is about 30-50 plus pages), which incorporates all the information I have gathered. 

This part of the process is essential, as with adults, it is often not as clear as with children/adolescents, and detailed evidence needs to be provided against each criterion.  It is often not easy to make decisions about some criterion without having it all clearly written out so that the strength/weakness of the evidence is clear, and so that differential diagnosis can take place. 

PLEASE NOTE: if other diagnoses (such as Complex PTSD) bed it be explored extensively, additional interview may be required – and additional psychometrics.  In this case, there will be additional costs- and the report fee will be higher as more than one day is spent on analysis and writing.  It is not possible to give a more precise costing until the first interview.

It is possible, at the end of the first session, that I recommend that we go no further as there is insufficient information/ evidence to warrant this and so you will just pay for the initial fee.  However, for a comprehensive assessment, the other steps will be needed.