An Inverness woman who is campaigning for a new system to diagnose children with autism believes NHS Highland are now taking her seriously for the very first time.
Sylvia Mackenzie, of Culloden, was joined by other parents to share their own personal experiences of the current system with the board’s chief executive Elaine Mead.
Among concerns raised were the lack of a guaranteed timescale for diagnosis and inadequate provision of assessments, treatment of parents by the authorities and the need for more educational support.
Ms Mead is expected to chair a meeting in the near future which will involve parents and department heads ranging from paediatrics to speech and language therapists.
Yesterday, Mrs Mackenzie said she believed that Ms Mead was both “disturbed and shocked” by the cases which she outlined in Wednesday’s meeting, adding: “I feel that they genuinely did take our issues onboard and have held their hands up and agreed that there is problems with the current system.
“Rather than taking our issues away and deal with them behind closed doors, they have thrown it open to us to be part of their improvement group, so going forward there will be more meetings and correspondence, so here is hoping we can work together to make real improvements to the system.
“It’s the first time it has been flagged up at a high level, and I really came out of there feeling that she understood and listened to us. It’s often very hard to get a professional to listen to us. It was really positive to have this meeting.
“It’s just a shame our families went through a period of turmoil to get to this stage but it’s a big step and it’s a case of onwards and upwards”.
Mrs Mackenzie battled for 10 years to have her son Kobe diagnosed with autism and is now going through a similar process with her grandson Kayson, who has been waiting for an assessment for nearly two years.
Mrs Mackenzie has previously received an apology from NHS Highland after a ruling by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman in relation to Kobe’s condition.
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Drew Hendry has also been helping Mrs Mackenzie have her voice heard, and as well as attending Wednesday’s meeting he spoke to the Minister for Mental Health, Maureen Watt, to highlight her concerns.