Participant quotations
| Theme/subtheme | Quotation |
| Diagnosis | Dr X who is just amazing, … she knows all about masking and everything… So, we had the assessment, Dr X listened to what we were saying, and actually listened.(Participant 9) This is our GP [responding to parent concerns]… “Well, he’s not ripping up my surgery, so there can’t be much wrong with him” and I just felt like putting my head in my hands, because I just thought … This is going to be a battle isn’t it? (Participant 1) So, again they [the gp] kind of felt …, it was just anxiety, it was kind of anxiety was the kind of prevailing sort of presentation [and not autism as the parent suspected and was later confirmed] and … they did the CBT approach. (Participant 7) |
| Experiences of doctors | …he [the gp] sort of crouched down…, sort of put his elbows on the bed, and was like really interested in her [autistic child]. (He) didn’t talk to us [parents] first, he talked to her first…So, that was a really good example. (Participant 4) …[autistic child] wouldn’t engage with the doctor, he wouldn’t go, so, I rang the doctor, she said “Come and see me” without him [child], to talk about him, which was great, because I was able to go. And she gave me as much time in the world to talk about him and his difficulties and what was going on at school,. And she said, we need to build up his tolerance to come in to visit the doctor. So, she said “Tell you what, next time, make an appointment with me… and if he won’t get out the car, I’ll come out and see him. (Participant 9) the first GP that I saw … I asked at that time for …a referral psychology around his eating, I felt that they just kind of brushed that off and said that “Well, he’s too young and it’ll kind of sort itself out”, but obviously we had several years of quite a restricted eating, So, yeah, so it would have been really good if the GP had kind of spent a bit more time and taken me seriously. (Participant 7) |
| [medical team] are relentlessly dismissive and… (Participant 1) What would surprise me and make me feel better, is if they were like “Okay, excellent! What’s the best way for me to do this with her? Or I need to do this, these are the things I need to do, how’s the best way to do it? (Participant 2) | |
| TfA considerations | I think it’s brilliant … autism is something that is not well understood … I didn’t realise how varied it is and how it displays itself really differently; my child is so, I think it’s brilliant to have something that will help health professionals, or doctors in this case, understand a bit more… So, I think it’s great and I really support it. (Participant 2) … some of the frustrations that we’ve experienced really, have been where people have had a very medicalised mechanist understanding of what autism is and … something that is a problem to be fixed,. And so, I think one of the best ways I can think of for new doctors to get a different understanding of it is just to spend time around it, exactly as the programme is proposing. So, I think in that respect that’s great. (Participant 6) … it would just have to make it like a home visit outside of school time, and don’t be late. We can’t be that flexible, once the time is booked don’t change it unless you have to, because that would then probably create some anxiety … but that would just be more because if we’ve done a lot of work around who’s coming [to the house] when… (Participant 4) |