Work to cut Fife’s two-year waiting list for an autism diagnosis has come too late for many families, says a local mum.
Liza Quin, from Buckhaven, had to wait three years before her daughter Alannah was diagnosed at the age of five.
And 12 years on, she says little has changed with more than 1,000 young people now waiting for an assessment.
Head of education, Maria Lloyd, says plans are under way to improve services in the region, including bringing in more staff and extra training for teachers.
And while cutting the waiting list remains a priority, early intervention will also be a focus.
Liza said: “It’s good that they’re trying but I’ve heard it all before.
“Families have had a lot of empty promises and it’s very frustrating for them.
“Seeing is believing.”
‘Families are struggling’
The Covid pandemic has hit waiting times as face-to-face assessments were stopped in 2020.
In the meantime, NHS staff are contacting every family on the list to offer support while they wait.
But Liza, who runs Autism Rocks in Buckhaven, says people faced problems long before Covid.
“My daughter started going through the process when she was two-and-a-half and she was five when she was diagnosed,” she said.
“She’s 18 now and families are still struggling. Many families wait way longer than two years.
“We support 2,400 families at Autism Rocks and a lot of them are being let down.
“It’s a long and isolating road.”
A huge part of the problem, she says, is that people have to be assessed by several different departments before they receive an autism diagnosis.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to have to repeat yourself constantly,” said Liza.
“One big thing that would help is to cut down on the number of professionals involved in the assessment.”
More staff and training to cut wait for autism diagnosis
And that is exactly what the Fife service is trying to do.
A new approach, already under way elsewhere in Scotland, will see intervention at an earlier stage with fewer individual appointments.
In addition, it has launched a pilot project in the west of the region where education staff are working with the NHS.
Teachers and other school staff are going through training to allow them to offer more support where needed.
The aim is to have a more streamlined process.
Add to that the creation of seven new NHS posts, and Ms Lloyd is hopeful waiting lists will fall.
We’re not pretending we’ve got all the answers,”
Maria Lloyd, head of education and children’s services.
Speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists are due to start in April.
And once waiting times become more manageable, the focus will switch to early intervention.
Ms Lloyd added: “We’ve got a lot of very anxious families because of the waiting time for an autism diagnosis.
“Over the last two years, Covid has affected people with additional needs more than it’s affected other families.
“We’re not pretending we’ve got all the answers.
“What we’re trying to do is reassure parents there are other ways we can support their young person.”
‘Better late than never’
Labour councillor Altany Craik is the parent of a grown-up child with Aspergers.
He said the process until now had been laborious and added: “It just isn’t good enough.
“We need to keep an eye on this and make sure it’s actually delivered.”
However, he praised the new direction being taken in Fife.
He said: “We didn’t get it, we’ve taken too long, we’ve under-resourced it but we’re now moving in the right direction.
“Better late than never.”
