WEBVTT

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Now that you're scheduled for your autism assessment, I wanted to take a few minutes and let you know what to expect moving forward.

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So the first step that you took was reaching out to our office and scheduling a 15 minute consultation with me.

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During that time, we answered all your questions and made sure we were good fit and then got you set up for the intake appointment.

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That intake appointment is usually about 60 minutes.

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It can be done via telehealth, phone, or in person.

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And before that appointment, you'll have a little bit of paperwork to fill out.

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You'll get an email from a service called Sign Now and it will have a few forms for you to fill out before your appointment.

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You'll also get an email from Athena, our charting software, and it will let you set up your patient portal.

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On that patient portal, you'll click the blue check in button for your appointment.

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And that will prompt you to fill out a little bit of medical history.

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If you're doing a telehealth appointment, we will video call you on spruce.

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That is our telehealth app.

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So please get your spruce account set up ahead of time and make sure you have spruce open and ready at your appointment time.

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During that intake appointment, we'll cover questions like,

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why are you looking for an autism assessment?

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What are you hoping to get out of an assessment?

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What are your fears and concerns about getting an assessment?

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We'll have time to answer all of your questions and we'll gather some basic history about your medications,

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your medical history, your allergies, your family history, that sort of thing.

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At the end of that appointment, we'll go ahead and schedule your interview sessions.

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And we can decide how we want to break up the interview.

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Usually the interview takes about three hours.

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So some people will do three one hour sessions.

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Some people will do two 90 minute sessions.

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Some people will do one very long three hour session.

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So we can decide what works best for you and how we break that up.

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And then we'll put it on the calendar.

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Again, that can be telehealth, it can be on the phone, it can be in person.

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We can even meet at a trail and go for a long walk or a hike and do the interview that way.

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Between the intake appointment and the interview appointment,

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you'll have some more paperwork to fill out.

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Those emails will come from WPS and Q Global.

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And they include some rating scales asking about social differences,

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communication differences, sensory preferences, and your executive function.

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So you'll fill those out.

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And if you so choose, we'll also send some of those to a family member or a spouse

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and they'll fill them out.

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That's not a requirement.

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So if you don't have family that you want involved, that's totally fine.

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But if you do, they'll also fill out that paperwork.

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Then we meet for your interview sessions.

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During the interview sessions, we can do one of two things.

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We can start more in a narrative style.

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And I just sit down and I ask you,

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so why do you think you're autistic?

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Or why do you think you have ADHD?

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And you can just talk.

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And I will take notes.

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Some people really like doing it that way.

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Other people want more structure and they want me to ask very specific questions.

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And in that case, I have a whole interview of specific questions.

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And I can ask you a question and then you answer it.

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And then I ask a question and then you answer it.

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And so we can decide what way will work best for you.

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If you want to bring a support person to those interviews, you're welcome to.

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You can bring your favorite fidget toys.

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Make yourself comfortable.

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We want to settle in and have you feel really comfortable for those interview sessions.

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Some people even bring some stuff prepared ahead of time.

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They'll pipe a list and bring it to me.

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They'll video record themselves.

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Like info dumping all their thoughts and give it to me.

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They'll bring me a binder with all of their

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thoughts of why they're autistic.

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If you want to bring anything with you to that appointment

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that you've prepared ahead of time, you are totally welcome to.

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If it helps you to prepare ahead of time for questions,

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I can also send you all of the interview questions in advance

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so that you can prepare answers for each of them.

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If that works better for your brain.

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Once we finish all those interview sessions,

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then we've gathered all the information that I need.

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And at that point, I sit down, I analyze everything,

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and I write a big long report detailing all the tests that we did,

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the interview that we did, and then how you do

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or don't meet the diagnostic criteria for autism and ADHD.

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That report also includes a bunch of suggestions and recommendations

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for how you move forward with that information

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and how to get your support needs met.

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That typically takes about four weeks for me to process

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and write that report.

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And then we have a feedback session, typically about an hour,

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where we talk through the report,

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and you can give me feedback on anything that I got wrong

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that you want me to change or edit.

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And then when we both feel really good about the report,

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I send you the finalized copy and you have it for your records.

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At the end of that feedback session, plenty of people are done.

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Some people feel like they want more ongoing support,

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that the diagnosis is just the beginning,

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and they want more support as they figure out what to do

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with this information in their lives.

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And in that case, we can schedule some ongoing appointments,

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where we can meet and talk about your sensory needs,

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we can talk about accommodations.

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I can help you get accommodations at work or at school.

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We can explore mental health,

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but that's a little overview of what you can expect.

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If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

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I don't want you to have to lay awake at night chewing your nails.

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So if you're feeling anxious, just send me your questions.

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You can reach out via email, text, or phone,

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and all of our contact information is at the bottom of your introduction

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or welcome packet that you received in your email.