About this helpsite
The ASHTA helpsite was designed and built by David Cant, an MSc. student in Computer Science at the University of Sheffield, as an external project for Professor Digby Tantam.
Digby Tantam is a medical practitioner who is approved as a specialist under section 12 of the Mental Health Act. He is on the specialist registers of the General Medical Council for both general psychiatry and psychotherapy, is an associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and a psychotherapist registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy.
Digby provides a national assessment service for people suspected of having Asperger syndrome and for adolescents and adults with autism. This work involves clinical assessment, family work, counselling, and advice to other professionals. He has been doing this for twenty five years.
Digby has been on a member of working parties on services for people with Asperger syndrome, including a recent working party of the Medicines Control Agency on autism and MMR vaccination. He has been an international advisor on developmental disorders to the text revision of the standard diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV TR, 2000).
Digby has provided approximately fifty independent reports to Mental Health Review Tribunals mainly on the behaviour of people with Asperger syndrome. He has provided approximately 100 reports to solicitors, mainly in respect of people with Asperger syndrome or in cases involving autism. These have been in criminal proceedings, including cases of manslaughter and attempted murder, and in civil proceedings, usually in connection with compensation for the failure to diagnose. The former have mainly involved instructions from the defence solicitor, and the latter from the plaintiff’s solicitor, although not exclusively. He is often invited to lecture in this country and abroad on Asperger syndrome.
Digby has published over 100 articles in scientific journals, many of them about Asperger syndrome or autism, and has been the author or editor of 8 books.