Kent mum pays nearly £3,000 for son's autism assessment after 4 year wait
WATCH: A mother from Kent tells ITV Meridian's Joe Coshan how she paid thousands for a referral for her son.
A mother from Kent has paid nearly £3,000 for her son to have a referral for an autism assessment, after waiting four and a half years on the NHS.
Hayley Vannerley first noticed her son Reuben’s severe mood swings and inattentive behaviour when he was in nursery in Faversham, which only worsened at school.
Reuben was finally diagnosed with autism and ADHD in November last year, after a wait which Hayley says left her son feeling suicidal.
Hayley said: "You shouldn't have to pay for it, but when you're backed into a corner, you only want the best for your child.
"He needed the help, so the only option we had was to pay privately. Within 10 weeks, he had a diagnosis...and that got the ball rolling.
"Everything was in place for school and all of his needs were met. It was a massive turning point."
Hayley Vannerley, Reuben's mother
An avalanche of demand for autism and ADHD services has created an escalating crisis for the NHS in the south east, new analysis suggests.
Research by the health think-tank, the Nuffield Trust, reveals an 'extraordinary' rise in demand for autism assessments and ADHD treatments.
According to analysis, the number of people waiting for an autism assessment has increased by 400% in the last five years.
It's prompting calls for a radical rethink about how to tackle demand.
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Thea Stein, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust said: "I think that we're at a tipping point and an interesting point as a society, definitely.
"What we are going to need to see is all workplaces, all educational settings to understand something that actually should feel quite normal, that we're all different, that we all learn differently, that we all experience the world differently.
"So I think we will we will hopefully become a society that is more interested, tolerant, open and accepting of the diversity that we have.
"Then we will be able to use our services in a focused way for those people. We really have very, very serious and very complex neurodiverse problems."
Latest figures show, in Kent and Medway, there are 7225 patients waiting for an assessment. Of this, 6090 have been on a waiting list for more than three months already.
While in Sussex, 4980 are on the waiting list, while 4400 people have been waiting more than 13 weeks to be assessed for autism, according to NHS data from December 2023.
A spokesperson for NHS Kent and Medway said: "We are sorry families are waiting longer than we would like them to for an assessment for either ASD or ADHD, we appreciate how frustrating this can be.
"There has been a significant rise in demand for these assessments since the pandemic.
"The NHS and our partners are working hard to make sure the right support is available to families, with or without an assessment, as this is important for all children and young people."
Here is a list of helpful links to regional and national services that support mental health, for anyone affected by the topics in this article.