Young people and their families’ experiences of Autism and ADHD diagnosis in Northamptonshire
In the autumn of 2023, Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was commissioned by Northamptonshire’s Integrated Care Board to carry out research exploring the experiences of young people and their parents and carers who were waiting for an assessment of Autism and ADHD or those that had been recently diagnosed. To achieve this a survey was designed by Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire and then adapted for parents and carers as well.
A total of 322 people responded to the survey (115 young people and 209 parents and carers) looking at the support that was needed and struggles that young people and their families faced.
Some of the key findings discovered were:
- 32% of parents and 31% of young people said they had no support from any organisation after diagnosis
- 44% of young people did not think that the services available to them had helped them in comparison to 26% feeling that they had helped
- The most selected things that young people said they struggle to deal with were education, social skills, mental health and maintaining positive relationships with friends or peers
Click below for more information on our findings in both the full report and an easy read version.
“We know that this is an issue for a lot of people nationally as well as locally and it was vital that young people and their carers had a way to feed back the experiences that they are having. We know that there is work that is ongoing across Northamptonshire and look forward to seeing the changes that can be made”
