Our VisionÂ
In order to achieve that we want to see staff who are provided with opportunities to grow and develop new skills and knowledge. We think that staff identifying as neurodivergent should be provided with a safe and supportive working environment, in the knowledge that lived experience is invaluable in driving good standard care.
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We envisage better standards of care which respond to needs and helps people use their strengths.
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We envisage other provider services seeing what we can do and striving to be better than us.
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We want to reduce the stigma those who are neurodivergent face.
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We want to educate local communities to celebrate the strengths and skills of those who are neurodivergent
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Our Values
Respectful
As a service we have set out to respect that we do not have all of the answers. We aim to respect the views of every person we meet and although we sometimes may not agree we will endeavour to understand a different perspective as we respect that difference and diversity enrich our experience.
Determined
We are driven by our own experiences, each others’ experiences and the experiences of every person we have encountered professionally. We are determined to improve on the service we were able to deliver previously in other organisations.
Candid
Where we fall short of our other aims we will learn from our mistakes and share how we have changed in order to maintain the respect of the people we aim to serve. We will not ever hide from our shortcomings. Many of us have a diagnosis and we too are learning how to live with our own challenges. By being entirely open about what has happened we aim to demonstrate that mistakes can contribute to constructive learning.
Innovative
We have seen what has been achieved so far, and services have come a long way, but we think that by collaborating with the people we want to serve we can take support to a new level of quality that genuinely optimises strengths, be they individual or organisational. We aim to be recognised as innovative, not because we seem it but because will really are.
Safe
We recognise our limitations and network with some of the most knowledgeable specialists nationally on a regular basis. We know that it is not possible to know the answer to every question or challenge that we face but we will always seek expert guidance should we come across challenges that we are not confident that we can address.
Informative
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We do not think that there should be any specialist knowledge that can’t be shared. We aim to give as much information and opportunity for discussion and debate as we can where people want to know more. This dialogue will be used to further improve what we do. We will teach what we learn and we will share our successes.
Inspiring
We hope to inspire other services to do better than us. We have developed a new way of delivering the support, care and treatment that people have been asking for and we want to inspire others. If we can inspire other service providers to work differently to make their services better then everyone benefits. We want to inspire community change and action and will use our resources where we can, to show what can be achieved when people work together in a shared understanding.
Inquisitive
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We will always ask questions. We want to understand what others do, how other people manage their difficulties so that we can share things that work
Our Approach
Seeking support for the issues we help with can be daunting. There are lots of choices and what they offer varies so much in price, detail and description on their promotional information. It is possible to get a diagnosis for less money, but at what cost? Often the less expensive services will have strict targets around how long they take or the detail of assessment they will undertake. We take a stepped approach so that you can be guided to the right care rather than committing to work that you don't need. This step by step approach allows you to build up a clinical picture of your needs and allows you to set the pace and direction of your care. This also helps with the fears about costs that can accompany the decision to seek private healthcare. At every step we will aim to give some idea about the time and costs of the work we recommend. We work towards shared care agreement with NHS services and are active in driving the improvement of access to care from the NHS.
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For ADHD we follow the guidance of the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN), a group comprised of leading experts in their field. They have published guidance about what should happen in an ADHD assessment that leads to a formal diagnosis and treatment. Without this comprehensive approach you can be left with an unreliable diagnosis or poorly evidenced report. Our staff are all UKAAN trained if they are making the diagnosis and have regular clinical supervision with someone more experienced to continue to challenge their practice, in line with the recommendations of the UKAAN Assessment Quality Assurance Standard.
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For Autism we also insist on a comprehensive assessment which is detailed and evidence based. We use 3DI-R or ADI-R tools to ensure our history taking is accurate and ADOS2 to support our observational assessment. The standards outlined in NICE Guidance are clear that these tools offer the most reliable assessment and our multidisciplinary team contribute to clinical discussion of every assessment to ensure that nothing is missed. At present we are limiting our work in Autism diagnostics but will advise on the best way forwards for you if we think this necessary and we are unable to meet that need.
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For both diagnoses we take as long as is necessary to gather the information needed to provide you with a comprehensive portfolio of assessment evidence that ensures that you get an outline of exactly what evidence we have used to support the diagnosis we make. This portfolio ensures that you have a short summary letter for grant applications etc but also a longer clinical assessment letter which details every piece of evidence. This means that the letters should be accepted as evidence wherever you choose to seek your care beyond diagnosis. We recommend time with us after making any diagnosis to explore what options lie ahead.
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We are also expanding our network of specialists who can work with a range of issues beyond the core diagnosis and will only recommend people who we have spoken with and who we think are aligned to our values. That means if you are looking for a service we don't provide we aim to guide you to someone who can that has the same vision for care.