Hi, my name is Davida Hartman, I am the Clinical Director of The Adult Autism Practice, and late identified ADHD. 

Our team considers it a great priviledge that you have chosen us to support you in your identification journey. 

If you haven't already, I would recommend reading through the Frequently Asked Questions section of our website. 

It is very important to us that you feel prepared and comfortable, every step of the way. So, if you are unsure about anything or do not agree with anything in this form, please email us at info@adultautism.ie and we will do our utmost to help. 

 

If you are ready to start, this form has 4 different main sections. 

1. A Consent Form

2. An Autistic Experience Intake Form 

3. An ADHD Experience Intake Form (which you only need to fill in if you are going to be undertaking additional in depth invesitgation of ADHD)

4. CORE-OM Form

 

The Consent Form introduces who we are and how we work, and gathers some basic details about you and allows you to give your consent to proceed further. 

The Autistic Experience Intake Form allows you to share more detailed experiences about your life, in the many areas related to the Autistic experience. 

The ADHD Experience Intake Form allows you to share more detailed experiences in the areas related to the ADHD experience. 

The CORE-OM Form is a questionnaire about your current mental health.  

 

Completing everytihng in this form is likely to take a long time. You will be able to save it as you go along.  

Please ensure to click SUBMIT at the very end of this form or we will not receive it. 

 

Here are the steps of the process of booking in and working with us:

1. Read the FAQ on our website

2. When you are ready, click the ‘Make a Booking’ button

3. Fill in the Intake Form and submit. You will be given the opportunity there to choose what option you would like. If you are only doing Autistic identification with us, you do not need to fill in the ADHD intake questions

4. You are now on our waiting list. We will send you an invite email as soon as you reach the top (keep an eye on your junkmail folder!)

5. Respond to the invite email saying that you are ready to pay and book

6. Wait to receive and invoice and then make payment online. Let us know you have paid

7. View online psychologists’ calendars

8. If you are booking for a Consultation, book 1 appointment. If you are booking for an Autistic identification only, book 3 appointments. If you are attending for Autistic & ADHD identification, book 5. However, please note that psychologists may only have 1-2 sessions available. In that case it is ok, just book in as many as you can and you can discuss with your psychologist about dates/times for future appointments. If you are booking in for Autistic & ADHD identification, make sure to book in with a psychologist who supports both (this will be clear in the psychologist’s information)

9. If you attend for a Consultation, and want to continue with a full identification (of a choice of just Autistic, just ADHD or Autistic & ADHD) contact us to let us know. You will then be sent another invoice to pay. Once this is paid, you can book in for further sessions (2 more sessions if just Autistic OR ADHD, 4 sessions if looking at both)

10. If you are identified as Autistic and/or ADHD, allow 2 weeks for documentation. You can also book your appointment with Thriving Autistic (this can be at any time)

11. If you are not identified as either, you can still attend a complimentary follow up session with Thriving Autistic. You can also receive a document confirming the outcome if you want one

 

We very much look forward to getting to know you! 

 

Warmly, 

Davida 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Adult Autism Practice is not an adult mental health service. Our focus is solely on adult, autism identification (alongside ADHD identification). If you are experiencing significant mental health issues (e.g., suicidal thoughts or self-harming), for your own safety and well-being it is vital you seek support from the right services/professionals, before attending with us.

 
If UK based, you can contact:

1. Your GP, who can help you access a referral for psychological talking therapy in your area. 
2. Samaritans freephone 116-123 
3. Via TEXT www.crisistextline.uk 24/7 text servive
4. Text SHOUT to 85258 www.giveusashout.org

 

If based in Ireland, you can contact:

1. Your GP (or out of hours GP)
2. Samaritans freephone 116-123
3. TEXT Crisis Textline Ireland: 50808 is a free 24/7 text service. Text 3TS to 50808 
4. The Psychological Society of Ireland
5. The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

If you feel actively unable to keep yourself or others safe, please attend your nearest A&E department, where urgent mental health support is available. 

 

Confidentiality

All sessions are confidential with The Adult Autism Practice, and this is very important to us. We will always respect your right to confidentiality.

However, there are certain limits to confidentiality. In circumstances where concerns arise regarding your safety and well-being or that of another adult or child, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. This includes information provided in your submitted forms and/or emails, as well as information provided during sessions with your psychologist. 

This means for example that should you give us information which indicates that a child may be at risk, this is something that we are ethically mandated to follow up and possibly report. 

In the event where we feel we must break confidence, we will endeavor where possible and appropriate to discuss this with you beforehand.  

For clients in Ireland, psychologists are legally obliged to report all situations of potential risk or harm to those under 18. 

 

Note: Online sessions will not be recorded in any format by us, and it is not permitted for sessions to be recorded by you. 

Limitations to Confidentiality

 

Please be aware that there are some occasions when if past abuse/risk is reported to us we are legally obliged to report it to the relevant authority/agency, for example if there is the ongoing risk to others. We would seek to discuss this with you first. If you have concerns about the limits of confidentiality then please do discuss with your psychologist.

Where You Live is Important

We mostly see clients from the UK, Ireland and wider Europe.

However, we do see people living in other countries. If you currently live in a country that is not in the UK, Ireland or Europe, please email us at info@adultautism.ie, to see if your country can be covered.

If you live outside the UK or Ireland and hope to use your formal Autistic identification to access disability supports or other assistance, please check local legislation regarding the acceptance of a diagnosis from outside your country of residence.

Unfortunately, we cannot see clients residing in the USA or Canada, as regulations in these countries require your psychologist be registered in the specific US state or Canadian province in which you live.

If you are living in an eligible country that is not the UK or Ireland and are hoping to use your documentation for example to access disability supports, please make sure to check the requirements for accepting a diagnosis in the country you are living in. While we may be able to see and assess you, different countries have different rules around assessments and reports.

Location of Online Sessions

The platform we use for online sessions is Microsoft Teams. You might like to download and install Microsoft Teams (free of charge) prior to your session to become familiar with it, alternatively, if you are using a computer, you can also open the link in your browser without downloading Microsoft Teams.

You can book sessions directly with your psychologist and they will email you the Teams meeting details.

 

Confidentiality of Online Space

Due to the nature of working online, we cannot control all aspects of confidentiality as we can in face to face therapy sessions in a physical space. We have chosen to conduct online sessions through Microsoft Teams because they adhere to the HIPAA and EU GDPR standards for data protection.

 

Linking in with Other Services

 

It is important for you to let us know if you are currently linked with NHS or HSE adult mental health service (or similar).

The form provides a space for you to enter contact details for your service awe will request your consent at this end of this form to contact the service and request information and/or collaboration.

For a Consultation, we generally do not contact these services. However, we still ask you provide their details and consent to contact.

We understand you may have had negative experiences of services in the past, been misunderstood or dismissed. Please be assured, you are at the centre of everything we do and we recognise you as the expert in your own experience.

Looking After Yourself

Consultations and assessments with us are usually a positive experience. The majority of the feedback we have gained from previous clients is that they found the process hopeful, supportive and much easier and less stressful than anticipated.

However, going on a personal journey of discovery such as this can surface difficult feelings, be tiring and overwhelming.

Because everything is online and we will not be physically present, it is important to have a plan for what to do in case you become distressed following a session. Please make sure to have a plan with a list of options to follow, if you do become distressed, e.g., phoning family members, friends or helplines. If you become concerned about your own safety and can’t access the support you need, you should attend an A&E department.

It would be a good idea to schedule relaxing activities on the days you have assessment sessions, particularly after sessions.

If you feel that the experience is going to be particularly overwhelming, you could also consider accessing some therapeutic support outside of The Adult Autism Practice either before, during or after the assessment. 

If you experience significant distress during the period of the assessment, or just after it, please do let us know so that we can link you in with the right support.

Please note, we may recommend pausing your assessment journey, until you access some therapeutic support.

You will be asked later to provde the name and contact details of someone we can contact in an emergency. We will only contact this person if we are concerned for your safety and we are not able to get in contact with you.

 

Post Assessment Support Session

It is very important to us that the people we work with are well supported following what for many is a life transforming experience. 

While we are an assessment (collaborative identification) and not a support service, we have been proactive in ensuring there is a solid support pathway in place for our clients.

Tara O’Donnell-Killen is our Support Lead at The Adult Autism Practice. She is an Autistic integrative professional with an MSc in Applied Positive & Coaching Psychology, extensive training in several psychotherapeutic modalities (CBT, ACT, Solution focused brief therapy, IFS/Parts therapy, Compassion focused and mindfulness based approaches) along with over two decades experience living and working in the US, Europe, Egypt, UK and Ireland supporting diverse groups of adults.

Tara founded Thriving Autistic in 2020, at the same time we started The Adult Autism Practice. Thriving Autistic is a team of professional coaches, psychologists, therapists and occupational therapists who are all themselves autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. The team at Thriving Autistic follow the same neurodiversity affirmative commitment to practice as our team. They are also highly skilled and experienced in the area of ADHD and neurodivergence in general. 

As part of our assessment/collaborative identification package at The Adult Autism Practice, we offer one post assessment/identification support session with one of Tara's team at Thriving Autistic.

The follow up support session is designed to offer a supportive space for you to explore your feelings about the process and outcome of your sessions with us, to provide you with signposting to connect you to resources you may need and assist you with any immediate areas of concern.

 

The process is as follows:

If you are identified as Autistic and/or ADHD, your psychologist (with your consent) will email Thriving Autistic with a brief outline about your strengths and what you hope to focus on in the session. Thriving Autistic will then contact you by email to arrange your session.  

Documentation

If you are identified as Autistic (and/or ADHD) during an assessment, you will be provided with strengths based, Neuro-Affirmative documentation that confirms your identification and which helps you understand how you met the criteria. We will also provide you with documentation to help with reasonable accomodations in work or college if you need it. This documentation will be emailed to you in PDF format. 

Our "diagnosis" letters are accepted in health and education institutions in both Ireland and the UK. As stated previously, if living in a different country you will need to check their requirements. 

There is an additional fee if you intend on applying for PIP (in the UK) or Disability Allowance (in Ireland). See our website for info on fees. Please let us know in advance as there are specific report requirements to access these that we can help you with if needed. A robust letter of this kind means that we spend additional time gathering relevant information from the material that you share with us. We need to go into detail doing this to make sure we provide evidence, where appropriate, to support you being awarded points. In order that we can provide you with a detailed letter we need to charge a higher amount to cover the additional staff costs and admin time of producing this detailed letter

Please note that if you opt for a single consultation rather than a full assessment, there will be no written documentation provided.

Also, please note that if you require additional documentation/letters outside of what we typically provide there will be an additional fee. In addition, if you require documentation in the future after some time as passed (i.e. several months) there will be an additional fee for all of this documentation. 

We do not provide documentation for court purposes or legal proceedings. We also do not see clients actively engaging in most legal proceedings. Contact us by email if you have any particular circumstances you need to check with us about.  

Cancellation Fee

Due to high demand for our services, a cancellation fee for individual sessions will be applied if less than 48 hours notice is given. If you cancel within 48 hours of your appointment or fail to attend without notifying the psychologist, a fee of €75/£65 will be charged.

Professional Records

 

It is a requirement to keep appropriate records of the services provided. Your records are maintained by our staff on a secure Microsoft server, secured by use of a password and a firewall with a secure access log and are accessible only to The Adult Autism Practice team.  Any paper forms (e.g., if you choose to send a questionnaire in the post) are secured in locked filing cabinets in line with the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) ethical guidelines. All personal information is treated with respect and privacy to be read only as needed, in accordance with GDPR and the Psychological Society of Ireland guidelines.

Your session will not be audio or video recorded. Any notes we take during or after our session will be held securely in accordance with GDPR guidelines, we utilize a Microsoft suite of services as they are fully GDPR and HIPPA compliant. 

You may always request to see what information is held about you at any given time – allowing notice to gather and share as per GDPR guidance.

Please note that by agreeing to be emailed copies of any documentation being transmitted to you, you are acknowledging there is a small risk of information being accessed by a third party during this transmission.

Our Psychologists

We have a wonderful mix of psychologists from both the UK and Ireland on our team, who see a mix of clients from both regions (and abroad).

All UK based psychologists are registered with the HCPC (The Health and Care Professional's Council) (this is a requirement in the UK).  

If you are based in the UK and see one of our Irish based psychologists, please be aware that they are not registered with the HCPC. This means that in the unlikely event of you having a concern you would need to raise it within the Irish system (e.g. the Psychological Society of Ireland) and not the HCPC.

 The majority of Irish psychologists are members of the Psychological Society of Ireland (this is not a requirement in Ireland to practice as a psychologist).  If you are currently based in Ireland and see one of our UK based psychologists, similarly you would need to raise concerns within the HCPC. 

In no other way are the services provided by our psychologists any different.

When you are sent the selection of psychologists to choose from that have availabiliy, you may be able to choose between a UK or Irish based psychologist. However, please be aware that we cannot guarantee availability with a psychologist from a particular region. 

We have a mix of Counselling, Clinical, Neuro and Educational Psychologists on our team. All psychologists are fully qualified for the work they are doing and working within their competencies. For example, our Educational Psychologists often see clients coming to us for Autistic experience assesments who are young adults. All reports from all of our psychologists will be accepted by all major organisations (e.g. NHS and colleges) as they comply with best practice guidelines.   

The only thing to keep in mind here is if you are attending for ADHD identification, while the documentation is valid, if you wish to access medication this will not be possible from any assessment from a psychologist. 

Any queries or requests in this area please email us. 

 

Parent Signature

Parent signature is required if this application is for a child who is 17 now but wishes to go on our waitlist in the understanding that they will not be seen by us until that are 18 years old.

 

Note: When the child turns 18 years old they will need to sign another consent before being seen. 

The purpose of this Intake Form is to gather information about you and how you experience the world. Your psychologist will use this information to help explore with you the question, 'Am I Autistic?' 

 

However, we know that filling in forms like these can be overwhelming.

If, for any reason, you would prefer to talk these things through instead of filling in this form that is absolutely OK.

All you need to do in that instance is complete your name, email address and whether you are seeing a mental health professional (these are the 3 required sections in this form). You can then procced to the CORE and then click 'Submit' at the end of the form and proceed to your Consultation or Assessment as normal.

 

  
Why filling in this form is helpful

• Many of our clients have expressed that they feel anxious that they won’t be able to get out everything that they want to verbally during their video sessions. Sending this information to your psychologist in writing means that you can give all the information you want to give, in the way you want to give it.
  
  
• There is a lot of information that we need to cover. Providing this in advance means your session(s) will feel less rushed, as you'll have already covered lots of important areas.
  
  
• Sending the information to us in advance helps your psychologist know what the important areas are to focus on during your video session/s. After reading through this form, they will give you a plan in advance of each session of the areas you will be talking about.
  
  
• Anything you provide informs your psychologist of important areas to focus on during session(s). Reading your story, is a way of working together to make the most of your meetings.

Some important points about filling in this form

• You do not need to fill this form in all at once. If you click the 'Save' button at the end of the form you will be emailed a link to your form with the bits you have completed included. 
  
  
• Your psychologist will read this form once you have booked into their diary. This form may also be read by our Assistant Psychologists or a member of our Client Support Team, as part of the process of ensuring you receive the right support throughout your journey.
  
  
• There's no 'ideal' amount of information to include. And within the word limit of 2000, you can go into as much or as little detail as you would like. However, if you do need to write more, you can certainly follow up with an email.
  
  
• Please don’t worry about spelling or grammar.
  
  
• Full sentences are not essential. Use bullet points or single words/phrases, if easier.
  
  
• Some of the areas you will complete are related to Autistic experiences, others are not. Everything is there to help your psychologist get to know you and your history better.
  
  
• If you come to a question that you have already answered in a previous section, you don’t need to write it out again.
  
  
• As mentioned previously, there's no need to complete any section you don’t want to. You can add something like, 'I’d prefer to talk about this in person' or, 'I feel uncomfortable sharing this information.' You can even leave it blank.

The following question asks

"Have you ever experienced any significant events in your life that may have been traumatic (please only give as much detail as you feel comfortable providing)."

 

Please note:

We welcome you to share information with us in relation to significant events/experiences in your life that you feel are important to your assessment process, if you feel comfortable doing so. We will treat the information you share with us respectfully and confidentially. Please be reminded that there are some occasions when if past abuse/risk is reported to us we are legally obliged to report it to the relevant authority/agency, for example if there is ongoing risk to others. We would seek to discuss this with you first. If you have concerns about the limits of confidentiality, then please do discuss with your psychologist

Next is our ADHD Intake Form. 

Please only fill in this form if you are attending us for BOTH and Autistic and ADHD Assessment. 

If you have ticked the box at the start of this form telling us that you are only attending for a Consult or Assessment related to being Autistic, please do not fill in this form. Instead just scroll down to the end of the form and click on to the next page. 

Only fill this form in if you have ticked the box that you are also attending for an ADHD Consultation or Assessment.

If you are attending for Autistic identity only, please scroll down and click on to next page. 

The purpose of this Intake Form is to gather information about you and how you experience the world. Your psychologist will use this information to help explore with you the question “Am I ADHD?”

If ADHD is identified by a psychologist (as it is in The Adult Autism Practice) it is not possible to access medication using the documentation we provide. If you are specifically seeking a formal ADHD identification in order to access medication, you will need to undertake an assessment/identification with a psychiatrist or other doctor who undertakes this work. We do not have a psychiatrist or other relevant doctor on our team. If you undertake an assessment with us and then choose later to go to a psychiatrist, they will ask for a full further assessment which you will need to pay for. This is standard for any person coming to them who has been identified by a psychologist previously. So please bear this in mind before deciding to go ahead.

Information from before the age of 12 is important to the ADHD identification process. While we understand it can be hard to remember from this time, it is important to try to add as much information between the ages of 5 and 12 as you can (as well as your current experiences). If you do not remember, if you can ask people who knew you at this age it would be very helpful. However, we know this is not possible for everyone, and we will support your during your session/s in thinking back about your childhood if necessary.  

 

Nearly there! 

• ADHD people often report different experiences based on their environment and supports offered. 
• Because of this, following section allows you to refect on how you have experienced any of the above traits (or others) in different environments throughout your life.
• As you are filling out your answers, again, try to consider both your current experiences and what you encountered in childhood or adolescence.
• If you have already included information above, you do not have to do so again. 
• There are plenty of questions under each question to prompt you, but you do not need to address them. 
• Also, remember that you can save as you go along, and can come back to the form before submitting. 

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST

This form has 34 statements about how you have been OVER THE LAST WEEK.

Please read each statement and think how often you felt that way last week. Then choose an answer from the drop-down, which best fits this feeling.

© CORE System Trust: http://www.coresystemtrust.org.uk/copyright.pdf