Waiting
The wait is the reason most adults give up. Here is what each pathway actually involves, including the one that is free.
Adult Autism Assessment Perth arranges autism and ADHD assessments for adults and adolescents across Perth and WA. This page covers every route, not only ours.
Publicly funded autism assessment in Australia was built around children, and the funding followed. That produces two problems for an adult in WA, and the second is worse than the first.
The first is the wait. Where an adult pathway exists at all, waits past a year are routine.
The second is eligibility. A great many adults are not put on a waiting list, because they do not qualify for the service at all. Being told "we do not assess adults" after months of trying is a very common experience and it is not a reflection on you.
Free or very low cost, and genuinely worth trying if cost is the binding constraint. Start with a GP, who can tell you what is currently available in your area — the picture changes, and a website is a worse source than a practice that makes the referrals.
Realistic expectations: limited adult availability, a long wait where it exists, and a real chance of being told you are not eligible. If money is not the binding constraint, the arithmetic usually favours going private.
Weeks rather than years. You pay the full fee — see Medicare and rebates for why that is generally not claimable.
From first enquiry to written report is usually three to six weeks: a short wait for the appointment, a 2–3 hour interview, and the report within about ten days.
Worth stating plainly: for adults outside Perth, the public option is thinner again, and travel to a metropolitan appointment can add cost that rivals the difference in fee.
This is the one place telehealth changes the arithmetic rather than merely being convenient. An assessment conducted by video is the same assessment, and it removes a drive from Kalgoorlie, Geraldton or Albany. See what happens for how the session runs.
It means we are not holding a queue. It does not mean tomorrow. When you enquire you get the psychologist's actual availability in writing, with a date, before you commit to anything. If that date is four weeks out we will say four weeks.
A site that promises immediacy and then books you in six weeks has told you something untrue at the only moment you could have acted on it.
A fair way to think about it, without us telling you what to do:
Current WA public pathways are best confirmed through a GP or HealthyWA, as availability changes. National context on diagnostic pathways is published by Amaze and the Autism CRC National Guideline.
Send an enquiry and you will have availability and a fixed price back, usually the same working day.
