Autism and ADHD Assessments
Debate between Steve Brine and Elliot Colburn(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Elliot Colburn
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am glad that he used the word neurodiversity because I think that that will be a common theme of many of our speeches, along with an understanding of diversity in autism and ADHD diagnoses, which is very important.
Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)
My hon. Friend will know that the Health and Social Care Committee, which I chair, is undertaking a major inquiry into the prevention of ill health. Given the rather shocking statistics about the harm that adults with ADHD can come to—attempting suicide, for example—does he agree that answering the petition positively is a key prevention issue in healthcare?
Elliot Colburn
The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee is absolutely right and I commend the work that the Committee has done in this area. I look forward to reading its report. Later in my speech, I will cover the wider health effects that waiting times can have on parents and adults waiting for assessments, so I am grateful to him for making us aware of that.
When I first agreed to open the debate, I initially took a personal view from my constituency. I have stood in this Chamber many times to talk about the poor experiences of parents in Carshalton and Wallington in attempting to secure education, health and care plans, or EHCPs, for their children due to the poor management of Sutton Council’s arm’s length organisation, Cognus, which was recently the subject of a BBC “Panorama” exposé. Barely a week goes by without a parent coming to talk to me at my surgeries about the poor experiences they have had when waiting for assessments or the inadequate assessments they have had—and this is the case not just for children, but for adults as well. Over recent weeks, in preparing for the debate, it became to me that assessment times are simply not fit for purpose.