Autism Diagnostic Service (LADS)
This section is for you if you are a healthcare or other professional who are interested in improving your awareness of autism spectrum disorder.
Consultancy service
Purpose of consultancy
The consultancy aims to enhance understanding of autism’s effects on social inclusion, daily functioning, and mental health for autistic service users, their caregivers, and staff. It seeks to identify practical adjustments to improve service access, communication, and relationships between the autistic person and their care teams. Our consultancy team can offer support in refining the formulation and interventions and hopefully deepen knowledge of autism for all involved.
Who is consultancy for?
The consultancy service is for autistic adults who also have significant additional problems (e.g., with mental health, social circumstances, or day-to-day functioning) and/or high levels of risk. Since the consultancy team is small, we can only offer consultancy to service users with the highest level of need for a discrete period of time. The consultancy service is open to referrals from professionals only. The service user needs to be receiving ongoing support from an LYPFT care team for at least 3 months after accessing our consultancy team.
The consultancy service is for people already with an autism diagnosis, either from Leeds Autism Diagnostic service or elsewhere. For service users diagnosed elsewhere, we require a copy of their diagnostic report. If this is unavailable, please contact the team to discuss.
During the consultancy process:
- Our preferred option is for the professional and service user to attend together (with or without carers)
- It is also possible for the named professional to attend alone
- In some cases we will see the service user and/or carer without a professional present, however, we hope to facilitate the working relationship between health professionals and the autistic person.
What consultancy involves
The consultation process offers between 1-3 appointments spaced apart, giving opportunity for experimentation with strategies and for any changes of care to be reviewed. During the consultation process, we usually expect that the service user remains under the care of the named professional and has a “home” team for at least 3 months beyond our consultation process, to support the implementation of any reasonable adjustments or recommendations.
How to refer
For information on how to make a referral to our consultancy service, please visit the referrals section.
If you would like more information on the consultancy service, please email lmh-tr.ladsconsultancy@nhs.net
Training
We offer Tier 2 Autism Training to all patient facing clinical staff in LYPFT and staff from other organisations embedded within LYPFT teams.
Training content has been co-produced with Experts By Experience and aims to increase staff members’ awareness of autism and confidence in caring for autistic service users.
Topics covered in the training include: ‘Mental Health & Autism’, ‘Females on the Autism Spectrum’, ‘Camouflaging and Masking’, ‘Communication & Autism’, ‘Sensory Processing Differences’ and ‘Diagnostic Overshadowing’. The training is delivered by specialist clinicians working in the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service.
To book a place on a training session, please check Learn for available sessions or register your interest by emailing autismtraining.lypft@nhs.net