How to get an autism assessment as an adult in WA

Adult Autism Assessment Perth arranges autism and ADHD assessments for adults and adolescents across Perth and WA. Below is the whole pathway, including the options that are not ours.

You do not need a GP referral

This is the single most common thing that stops adults starting. An adult can self-refer directly to a psychologist for an autism assessment. No GP visit, no referral letter, no waiting for one.

A GP referral matters for one thing only: a Mental Health Care Plan, which rebates treatment sessions. It does not rebate the diagnostic assessment itself. See Medicare and rebates for the detail.

Who is allowed to diagnose autism in an adult

In Australia, an autism diagnosis in an adult is made by a psychologist or a psychiatrist with experience in adult autism assessment. Both administer standardised instruments and produce a written report.

The practical differences:

• A psychologist assesses, diagnoses and can provide ongoing psychological support afterwards. This is the usual pathway for adults, and it is what this site arranges.
• A psychiatrist assesses, diagnoses and can prescribe medication. Autism itself is not treated with medication, so this matters mainly if ADHD is also being considered — see autism and ADHD together.

A GP cannot diagnose autism. Neither can an occupational therapist or a speech pathologist on their own, though both may contribute to an assessment.

The three pathways, honestly compared

1. Public and hospital services

Free or very low cost. The difficulty is eligibility: most publicly funded autism assessment in WA is directed at children, and adults are frequently told they do not qualify at all. Where an adult pathway exists, waits past a year are common. See waiting lists in WA.

2. Private psychologist

Typically a few weeks rather than a year. You pay the full fee, generally $1,500 to $2,500 for an adult assessment. This is the pathway most adults end up using, simply because it is the one that is actually available.

3. Private psychiatrist

Usually more expensive again, and often a longer wait than a psychologist. Worth it where medication for co-occurring ADHD is likely to be the point of the exercise.

What to prepare before the appointment

Autism is developmental by definition, which means the assessment is partly about your childhood. Adults are often poor witnesses to their own early years, so anything you can bring helps.

• School reports. Teacher comments from primary school are unusually useful — they were written by people watching you in a social setting before you learned to mask.
• Someone who knew you as a child, if that is available to you. A parent, older sibling or long-term partner may be asked a short developmental history. It is not compulsory, and plenty of adults are assessed without it.
• Your own examples. Specific situations rather than labels. "I rehearse phone calls before I make them" is more useful to a clinician than "I have social anxiety".
• Previous reports. Any prior psychology, psychiatry or educational assessment, even if it concluded something else.

How long the whole thing takes

With a private psychologist, from first enquiry to written report is usually three to six weeks: a short wait for the appointment, a 2–3 hour interview, then the report within about ten days. The interview itself is one session for most adults.

What you get at the end

A written diagnostic report stating the outcome and the evidence for it, plus recommendations. A good report is written so that a GP, an employer, a university disability service or the NDIS can act on it — not only another psychologist. Ask what the report will contain before you book; a report only a clinician can read is one you may have to pay to have rewritten.

If the answer is no

A thorough assessment considers ADHD, anxiety, trauma and giftedness alongside autism, because they overlap and are regularly mistaken for one another. If autism is not the fit, the report should say what is — and that is a real result, not a wasted one.

Sources

The national reference for this process is the National Guideline for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autism in Australia (Autism CRC), which sets out what a best-practice assessment involves. General information on adult diagnosis is also published by Amaze and Aspect.