Adult ADHD advice 

We want to ensure all our patients are safely assessed and treated. Due to long waiting times in the NHS, patients seeking possible diagnosis of adult ADHD look at quicker ways to be seen, such as private clinics. These private clinics can be very expensive to patients, with ongoing unexpected costs of prescriptions and regular monitoring that are not made clear. Some clinics also have variable standards of care.   If you are seen privately & advised to have medication, GPs cannot prescribe these specialist ADHD medications or take over their specialist monitoring, which are at least annual once stabilised. Please be aware of these hidden costs to patients of private ADHD clinic treatment. 

If you are seen in an NHS ADHD clinic, the ongoing monitoring and prescribing is paid for by the NHS. Sometimes a legal "shared care agreement" is set up with the NHS ADHD clinic and GPs where we assist with prescribing, providing the specialist is overseeing regular patient monitoring & reviews.  There are also "Right to Choose" or ICB commissioned ADHD services ( often online) that can diagnose ADHD & can sometimes set up shared care arrangements with GPs. These have been approved by the NHS to offer a good standard of care. 

Child ADHD Advice:

The referral process for children with suspected ADHD/Autism has changed. Patients are required to have ‘Neurodiverse Profiling’ which takes about 45-90 minutes to complete by a trained professional in partnership with parents/carers, and young person (if appropriate). This is not expected to be completed by the GP. To arrange Neurodiverse profiling, families should:

• -Speak to their school or healthcare professional trained in the profiling tool.
• -Alternatively, they can email cft.ndcornwall@nhs.net to identify someone who can help if the child/young person is not currently under a healthcare or school professional trained in the profiling tool.

The following website may also be helpful:    https://parentcarerscornwall.org.uk/neuodiversity/