Anna Kennedy OBE, together with Austin Hughes has been invited to meet with Department of Health officials in London on Wednesday Feb 5.
The meeting has been organised through Norman Lamb MP and will discuss the findings of the recent survey carried out by Anna Kennedy Online which asked parents opinions about autism diagnosis and assessment criteria.
The Autism Diagnosis Survey was one of the largest carried out in the UK and Autism Daily Newscast reported on this back in December.
Following on from the survey results Anna Kennedy Online launched the petition, Dept. of Health: Consistency within the NHS when diagnosing an autism spectrum condition.
The petition states:
‘…the very basics of which diagnostic assessment criteria is used is not clear. On the one hand the NHS sets out that ICD-10 IS the diagnostic criteria recognised and used. On the other hand professionals WITHIN the NHS state they diagnosing to what the DSM-V states and often misunderstanding what is within it. Instead of giving an ASD diagnosis, as was meant to happen, we now have evidence of families being told ‘ah we would have given you a diagnosis before but under DSM-V ‘Aspergers’ no longer exists and as your child’s symptoms meet with what we view as Aspergers we can no longer diagnose’.
To date over 3150 people have signed. You can view and sign the petition here
The results from the Autism Diagnosis Survey can be read here