Type of service: Assessment, Diagnostic services, Occupational Therapists (independent), Speech and Language Therapists (independent)

Service URL: http://www.thetukecentre.org.uk

The Autism Service is based at the Tuke Centre, York. We work with individuals across the autism spectrum and can offer Specialist Psychiatry, Occupational Therapy, Psychology and Speech and Language Therapy. We offer an initial 90 minute screening appointment with either a Psychiatrist or Psychologist, dependent on your needs, to discuss your difficulties. At this appointment we can decide together whether there may be enough evidence to recommend continuing on with a full comprehensive autism assessment. During the full autism assessment we use two gold standard assessment tools for identifying Autistic Spectrum Conditions: A. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS 2) which consists of a series of table top tasks that take up to 60 minutes. B. Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) which is a structured interview conducted with someone who has known you since infancy and takes between 2 - 3 hours to complete. All of our autism assessments are multi-disciplinary and completed by a Psychologist and a Psychiatrist.

The tools we use are recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). A full report is written afterwards with recommendations for any further support you may need. We also offer post diagnostic support sessions to those recently diagnosed to make sense of the diagnosis and what it means and for those who have an existing diagnosis. In addition we we offer the following: Skill Based Groups which is a social skill intervention for adults interested in learning ways to improve their social skills to make friends and maintain relationships; Specialist sensory assessments and tailor-made treatment plans for individuals with sensory sensitivities that are impacting on their quality of life; Occupational Therapy for individuals who would like support to enable them to achieve more independence and maintain day to day tasks and Speech and Language Therapy to help individuals who may have difficulties with communication and language.

Aimed at: Adult

Specialisms: Has autism-specific elements, Staff and volunteers get autism awareness training

Other specialisms: Challenging behaviour, Learning disability