Transcript Joint care pathways for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Joint care pathways for
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Carolyn Brown, Area Depute Principal Psychologist, Fife
Council Psychological Service
Wendy Simpson, Public Health Scientist, NHS Fife
What key purposes should care
pathways serve?
• To deliver an efficient, multi-professional,
multi-agency service that is truly integrated
and collaborative
• To establish a clear, consistent and
transparent referral route to multi-agency
assessment, diagnosis and intervention
• To be accessible, predictable and
understandable to parents
What outcomes should they
achieve?
• Reduced waiting and referral times for diagnosis
• Optimal use of current resources
• Parental experience of a streamlined, transparent system of
diagnosis linked to appropriate intervention, planning and
implementation
• Reduction in duplication of assessment/diagnosis tasks carried
out by the professionals involved with the individual
• Assessment and diagnosis carried out in the child’s learning
contexts and contexts which are familiar to the child
• Jointly planned and agreed interventions
What might a care pathway look like?
Stage 1: Recognition of difficulties
Stage 2: General assessments
Stage 3: ASD Specific Assessments
Stage 4: Tertiary services
• Diagnosis uncertain
• Second opinion
• Complex cases
Reported benefits of model
(Staff and parents)
• Shorter waiting times and opportunity for earlier
diagnosis
• Natural environment for most of the assessment
process
• Lack of disruption to the child
• Large range and richness of assessments provided
• Multi-agency group decision process
• Increased knowledge about ASD amongst frontline
staff
• Useful information for referral to FAST (Fife Autism
Spectrum Team)
• Better links to support and intervention for the child
and family
Pitfalls/worth thinking about
• Setting up school meetings could be
difficult
• Uncertainty about how to run meetings
• Some staff unclear about what we mean
by assessment
• How should parents be informed of
outcome of assessment?
• Clashes of professional
cultures/understanding respective
professional roles
• Expectations of professionals
• Administration and coordination issues
• Communication within and between
services
• Who owns the process?
What do you need?
• Senior management support across services
• A strategic vision
• Administrative coordination
• Good communications
• Guidelines – how to do manual
How meetings should operate, who’s responsible
for what etc
• Protocols
• Commitment and ideas on the ground
• Compromise