At a Glance
SIGN 145 autism guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for clinicians and healthcare practitioners to ensure consistent, reliable outcomes. This shapes every stage of the assessment process, providing adults with autism with clarity. Connect To Autism’s Anne Marie is one of the authors of the SIGN 145 guidelines and uses their principles effectively to offer high-quality autism assessments you can trust.
How SIGN 145 Autism Guidelines Help You Navigate Adult Autism Diagnosis
If you’re seeking an autism assessment or are on the waitlist for a diagnosis, you may be feeling unsure of what to expect, what an autism assessment entails or how it impacts your future. While this can feel overwhelming, you’re not alone. You can take advantage of resources like the SIGN 145 autism guidelines to gain a better understanding of what the autism assessment process looks like.
These guidelines can help you prepare for your autism assessment, by providing you with clarity and confidence. The SIGN 145 autism guidelines were created in 2016 by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). It was designed to provide healthcare practitioners, therapists and clinicians working with autistic individuals with a best practice guide containing reliable recommendations.
In this article, we break down SIGN 145, its impact on autism support and services in Scotland and what it means for those seeking an autism diagnosis.
What Is SIGN 145 and Why Does It Matter for Adult Autism Diagnosis
The SIGN 145 autism guidelines are widely adopted across the UK, even though they were initially created to guide autism diagnosis, assessment and NHS-led autism services in Scotland. This is because they provide clinicians and healthcare workers with a structured framework based on evidence-based recommendations.
By clearly outlining best practices, the SIGN 145 autism guidelines ensure that autism support and services in Scotland and the wider UK are fair, thorough, consistent and reliable. This is crucial for adult autism diagnosis, which can involve either individual clinicians or multidisciplinary teams working with limited historical knowledge or having to deal with masking behaviours, which can make diagnosis difficult.
Key Recommendations in SIGN 145 for Identifying Autism in Adults
The SIGN 145 autism guidelines contain detailed recommendations on a wide range of autism-related services. However, their key recommendations revolve around adult autism assessments being carried out by specialist healthcare professionals who must ensure that they are sufficiently informed and experienced to confidently diagnose in the majority of cases and that they collaborate, where possible, with relevant multiagency colleagues. Multi disciplinary assessments are seen as optimum.
A specialist health care professional may be an experienced speech and language therapist, psychiatrist or clinical psychologist.
Another key recommendation is the use of structured tools like DISCO, ADI-R and ADOS-2 to correctly identify autism in adults. These tools allow clinicians to gain a detailed understanding of an individual’s developmental history and play an important role in the assessment of autistic traits and behaviours.
Clinicians and healthcare practitioners are also encouraged to seek information from multiple sources, including the clients themselves, partners, parents, and other loved ones. This helps them corroborate the information they have gathered through existing tools and can also help in highlighting where possible co-occurring conditions such as ADHD, generalised anxiety disorders (GAD), and depression should be investigated further.
How SIGN 145 Shapes the Adult Autism Assessment Pathway
SIGN 145 autism guidelines provide clinicians with a clear pathway to how quality autism assessments are carried out in practice. It recommends the usage of standardised tools for autism diagnosis, ensuring that outcomes are consistent across the board, whether the assessment is carried out in the UK, Scotland or Ireland.
These guidelines not only help with a more accurate identification of autism in adults but also emphasise qualitative data, which is critical to uncover subtle signs of autism. SIGN 145 also lays out guidelines to support clear decision-making regarding an autism diagnosis. This should be with adherence to prescribed criteria contained in diagnostic manuals.
What Adults Can Expect When Seeking Diagnosis Under SIGN 145
Anne Marie at Connect To Autism is one of the authors of SIGN 145 autism guidelines, and she brings her professional expertise to her private autism assessments. For adults seeking a diagnosis, it is not always possible to bring an early childhood informant like a parent, carer or loved one for your assessment, and this is ok.
You can expect a detailed interview as part of your autism assessment, which will give your clinician a holistic picture of your traits, sensory sensitivities, communication style and more. Autism diagnosis with private assessment providers can take anywhere between 4-6 hours, across 2 sessions, which will be spaced according to your convenience.
At the end of your interview and assessment process, you’ll receive a comprehensive report and when requested, with detailed recommendations and practical strategies. This can help you manage your life post-diagnosis with more confidence and ease.
Ready to Take a Formal Autism Assessment? Contact Connect to Autism
Now that you know all about SIGN 145 autism guidelines and how they help clinicians make more accurate autism assessments, why not consider getting assessed by an experienced therapist?
Connect To Autism provides
- A free 30-minute consultation
- Private, clinical diagnostic autism assessments for adults 16+
The service is led by Anne Marie Gallagher, an autism consultant and speech and language therapist with over 25 years of experience in autism diagnosis and assessments. She’s a co-author of the SIGN 145 autism guidelines and has trained clinicians across the NHS in Scotland on the use of DISCO, a recognised autism assessment tool.
Anne Marie provides comprehensive evaluations and detailed reports, with the aim of helping you better understand yourself. She develops tailored strategies for your emotional and psychological well-being.
If you’re ready to talk, call 07958 449 402 or book a free 30-minute consultation.