North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to address the long delays for autism assessments, citing cases which have been referred to him in Flintshire.
Speaking in yesterday’s Business Statement, Mr Isherwood requested a Welsh Government Statement on autism assessment delays across Wales, referring to reports of BBC Wales research last week that children in parts of Wales were waiting, on average, two years for an autism assessment despite the Welsh Government's target of six months/26 weeks.
He said:
“We heard that Freedom of Information requests to local health boards revealed the average wait to be 107 weeks and six days in Hywel Dda Local Health Board, covering Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, and an average of 39 weeks in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board area, covering North Wales, for a child to be seen. But the quote from the Welsh Government was that the roll-out of a National Integrated Autism Plan was continuing.
“This month, I was contacted by a Flintshire Mum who said her son was assessed by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at five, was recognised as displaying high-functioning autism, but a diagnosis wasn't given as they said they'd re-assess him in a few years rather than jump to conclusions. He was recently re-assessed by the new Integrated Autism Service, and the outcome was that he didn't meet the autism criteria, but was ‘neurologically different’. She has requested a second opinion, as the written report clearly indicates that, in all areas, he is autistic, and this is supported by the many professionals they're currently working with.
“I'm representing a large number of constituents in the autism community fighting to get the services needed by them or their loved ones, but being denied assessments, often on spurious grounds. I had a meeting with a Health Board Clinical Psychologist and a Mum, herself on the (autism) spectrum, whose daughter was being denied assessment on the basis that she's so good at masking and coping in school before melting down at home. Instead, the Health Board Clinical Psychologist tried to psychoanalyze the Mum in front of me.
“Another Mum I met the other week with her daughter, aged 11. Will you make a statement recognizing, for example, that that young woman - that 11-year-old child - had an anxiety attack in front of me, in private, when confronted with the problems she's facing, and the years of her needs being denied by self-denying statutory bodies, just because she's learnt to cope so well in school?”
The Leader of the House, Julie James AM, replied: “We will be publishing waiting times in general, and that will be fit for a Statement. I suggest that if the Member has particular constituency issues that he wants to raise, with individual cases, that he raises them directly with the Cabinet Secretary.”
Mr Isherwood added: “Too often these parents are forced to pay for private assessment, only then to discover that they have to fight to get these assessments accepted by the Council and Health Board. This is scandalous. The Welsh Government’s non-statutory National Integrated Autism Plan is not delivering, highlighting once again the need for both an Autism Act and proper autism awareness in the executive suites of our Health Boards and Local Authorities.”