Dr Kirsty Hildebrandt, Clinical Psychologist, was pleased to be involved in the process for developing the new National Guidelines for the Assessment of Autism.
Currently there is no nation-wide guideline on how Medical and Allied Health professionals should assess Autism Spectrum Disorder. This leads to great variance in how assessments are conducted, the quality of these assessments and great confusion in consumers trying to access good quality assessments and treatment.
Autism CRC was tasked by the Federal Government to lead the development of a new nation-wide set of guidelines. A wide range of professionals, professional bodies, stakeholders and consumers gave their input into the new guidelines. Dr Hildebrandt was pleased to be part of the Australian Clinical Psychologists Association response to the proposed guidelines, along with Anne Chalfant, Derek Cohen, Janina Szyndler and Lydia Meem . The ACPA Psychologists involved were very pleased that a number of recommendations and revisions suggested by us were taken up by the steering committee and incorporated into the guidelines. We are hopeful that these new guidelines lead to better assessments of this complex neurodeveopmental disorder and better experience for consumers.
