top of page

Another Autistic's ~ Very Similar ~ PHSO Complaint


(All images screenshotted from link below)

Please see Dr Melanie Mahjenta's original source of these blog post extracts for her full story:

As you will see, the upshot is, that PHSO upheld this autistic lady's complaint about her autistic daughter's ASD diagnostic failure, yet there were even more failings in my case because they did not use clinical tools (which they did in this lady's case); interview anyone who knew me; obtain a childhood history; or ask me autism-related or any medical questions - in other words they did not conduct the assessment in accordance with any standard, they didn't just deviate from part of a standard as in this lady's daughter's case! Yet still PHSO has to date, claimed SPFT's ASD assessments were acceptable. Even in the face of clinical and incontrovertible medical evidence that I am autistic and their own clinical adviser stated in relation to SPFTs assessments, that: "ln routine practice the majority of diagnoses in psychiatry are provisional and therefore can be subject to change and revision." so their opinions are not written in stone and most especially when the assessments were completely substandard and irrefutable medical evidence has been presented showing I am autistic!

Exact same complaint as my own, only difference being, that it was myself and not my child.

I had no uphold, because they completely rescoped my complaint to something else (failing to identify breaches of procedures even in that scope) as they wrongly decided my actual complaint was out-of-time even with proof provided that it wasn't.

Interesting, as this reflects very similarly to what I went through, directly arising from SPFTs failings. Like me, Dr Mahjenta wasn't recognised as autistic, so her traits were falsely believed to be fabrication. If you read my impact post and this one,you will see I suffered similar unwarranted referrals for the same reason. My autism traits of determination, attention to detail and verbosity were used against me, because SPFT denied I was autistic. CAMHS staff who were involved in assessing one of our children for autism, were gossiping together about me behind my back, speculating that I might have mental health conditions and even that I might need forcible mental health assessment and this was fed by Rebecca Simpson, who was falsely labelling me as mentally unwell!

So why didn't PHSO make this finding with my complaint? Aside from the fact that they never investigated the procedures of the SPFT assessments, to discover that both were substandard and non-compliant, the evidence I provided with the first complaint which they rescoped, should have made them instantly see the injustice done to me, even if they had genuine cause (they didn't have) to believe it was out-of-time! PHSO has discretion they can use to waive time limits anyway and you would expect in view of the injustice that they would do that. As SPFT were given a copy of my private diagnostic report (multiple copies in fact), which was submitted to the funding panel, they could (and should) have recognised my ASD diagnosis, or funded the reassessment I had already been promised. So PHSO had good reason to conclude that SPFT should have diagnosed me sooner too, but didn't.

The same happened to me with SPFT's CAMHS when they assessed our eldest child for autism, Rebecca Simpson was telling them I wasn't autistic behind my back (while having told me she was helping me be reassessed).

Yup, my regular (but necessary) contact with SPFTs CAMHS in order to send them vital written information for our child's ASD assessment, as a reasonable adjustment for my autism, so that me going blank on the day wouldn't be detrimental to her assessment (explained in writing to them) was used against me. They referred to me as obsessional in emails to one another and admitted to be ignoring all my information. Likewise my contact with SPFTs PALS over my promised reassessment, sending them relevant evidence and information, was belittled and criticised by them. They even made false claims about my communication to PHSO. I had to request a 2nd opinion for my child when CAMHS failed to diagnose the child also. The so-called professionals were having safeguarding meetings behind my back. All because my autism was being denied by SPFT and they labelled me mentally-ill instead.

Really? So why didn't PHSO consider any clinical standard for me? Why did they accept a letter from Simon Street of SPFT, saying all their ASD assessments are NICE compliant and listing clinical tools used for assessments, when my SPFT assessments were done 3 years before NICE Guidance was even published and they never used a single clinical tool! And why, when I raised the second complaint with PHSO with my new medical evidence, did they end up (after telling me they would investigate and then changing their mind and merging it with the closed original complaint, even though they were entirely different, to shut it down) obtaining a clinical advice from an adviser who did not use any clinical standard to benchmark his advice against?! Not only that, but SPFT did not consider my own autism self-tests, they dismissed them - so they didn't consider information from all sources and as they failed to interview anyone who knew me, they omitted key information.

SPFT never tested me for any differential diagnosis, unlike Dr Arthur who diagnosed my Asperger's syndrome and ruled out other possibilities with a total of 8 differential clinical tools. SPFTs clinician Hugo Critchley dismissed my sensory difficulties and labelled them as anxiety! They were so focused on explaining away all my ASD traits, it was (as I realised much later) an intention to exclude ASD.

What! None of this was done with my complaint by PHSO! It's quite clear from all the evidence and facts on this website.

This should have been the same finding by PHSO with my own complaint. SPFT recorded that I had anxiety, but this was done without even testing me for anxiety and by labelling autism traits as anxiety! And SPFT did not correct their records when they received multiple copies of my private ASD diagnostic report which stated I had been tested for anxiety and a raft of other possible mental ill-health and found to have none! They continued to mislead PHSO.

Same. No weight was placed on my self report of traits, or my several autism self-tests I presented them with. They simply said they were unvalidated. SPFT clearly were intending to not diagnose ASD as a possibility as regards myself. Their reports explain away all my ASD traits.

Ditto. I have been prevented from accessing an autism care pathway for eleven whole years and counting! Considering I also have autistic children to care for and support too, I am a disabled carer and they have neglected me and broken the law!

Also the same with myself. I have been forced to pay for more and more evidence of being autistic and also had to pay for private care and mental health evaluations for my children because of how SPFT including their CAMHS were treating me. In total I spent around £4,500.00 because of SPFT. They denied being responsible! And to date SPFT have ignored and refused to comment on my evidence.

Wow, what happened in my case PHSO? All I got were denials, lies and corruption. And as PHSO told Dr Mahjenta this:

Why didn't they do that with my complaint? I'm waiting, PHSO...

bottom of page