Thank you for your interest in our child and adolescent ADHD assessment services. Please see below the relevant information regarding these services.
1. What age range do you assess for child and adolescent psychiatry?
We assess children and adolescents from the age of 6 and above.
2. How does the assessment process work?
Registration forms are triaged to ensure suitability for the service. Where we feel we are not the most appropriate service for your child, we will let you know and will provide signposting to a more suitable service.
Prior to the assessment, the electronic registration form and questionnaires to be completed by the parent / guardian and child are completed so that the information is available to the consultant prior to meeting with you. In an ideal situation, the forms to be completed by the school are back with the clinic prior to the assessment appointment, but when there are delays with completion of the forms by the school, the initial appointment can still go ahead despite this.
The assessment is conducted online via video call, lasting 1.5 hours. The consultant may spend time with both the child and the parent/guardian, together and separately, at the assessment appointment.
3. What happens during the appointment?
The consultant will conduct a comprehensive assessment, discussing past medical, personal, and family history. They will evaluate symptoms and behaviours to determine a diagnosis where appropriate.
4. If my child already has a diagnosis of ADHD do I need to book the full 1.5-hour assessment?
If your child already has a diagnosis of ADHD and you are looking to book in to see a psychiatrist to discuss treatment of their ADHD, then you can book in for a 1-hour assessment appointment, subject to an existing full assessment report by a consultant psychiatrist diagnosing ADHD being made available to the clinic to review prior to your child's appointment. In this instance, the focus of the assessment will include discussions about medication.
If the report is not deemed to be thorough enough or of the required standard, the hour will be used to bring the assessment up to the required standard and a subsequent half-hour follow-up appointment will need to be booked in to discuss and plan medication.
We will advise this once we have seen the existing assessment reports, which should be sent following booking within a mandatory form sent to you via email along with the other patient registration and triage forms. If, following triage, the appointment objective does not meet your expectations, you will be offered a full refund.
We would also like to remind patients that we do not guarantee medicinal treatment. This is subject to the assessment of the psychiatrist during the appointment.
5. What happens after the assessment?
Once all forms including the forms completed by the school have been submitted, a full report will follow, providing a diagnosis if applicable and suggested treatment plan. When there is a long delay getting the forms back from the school such as over the school holidays, an interim report will be issued after the assessment with a full diagnostic report arriving after the clinic has received the necessary information from the school.
On some occasions, the consultant may only be able to provide a differential diagnosis and may need to spend additional time with you and your child to complete a comprehensive assessment, where there are several areas that require further exploration.
Occasionally further possible specific diagnosis might need to be considered, for example Autism Spectrum Disorder is suspected. This would require a separate assessment, although of a shorter duration and less cost than normal due to some of the same areas already having been explored in the ADHD assessment.
The treatment plan will cover recommendations around environmental, and behavioural tools that may assist in an educational setting and at home, advice regarding talking therapies that may be helpful such as family therapy, individual therapy, CBT, and advice and referral to support classes to learn more about supporting your child with a particular condition.
Where treatment is recommended at the clinic, for example if medication is being considered and requires initiation and monitoring, follow-up appointments can be booked with the same consultant psychiatrist to initiate the treatment plan and manage medication. Please see the section below that covers this and treatment with medication in more detail.
6. What are the fees for the assessment?
The fee for the child and adolescent ADHD assessment and clinic letter is provided on our latest pricing page. In most instances, the initial assessment provides sufficient time to arrive at a diagnosis, discuss and initiate treatment, with a clinical report sent to you within a week, often faster than this, following the assessment. As above, this will be an interim report if the school questionnaires have not been received back by the clinic at the point of the assessment, with the full report to follow.
7. What happens if my child has complex symptoms?
When a child presents with more complex or a wider range of difficulties, the psychiatrist may need more time to fully diagnose and develop a treatment plan. In such cases, you may be asked to book a further appointment, to complete the assessment process. Follow up appointment pricing is also available on our website.
8. How long does it take to receive a clinical report?
A clinical report confirming the assessment outcome will typically be sent within a week, often faster than this, after the initial appointment dependent on report complexity.
9. How many follow-up appointments might be needed?
The number of follow-up appointments can vary. On average, a child would need around 3-4 follow-ups to assess medication stability. Some children may require more follow-ups.
10. Can I get a prescription for my child’s medication?
If deemed appropriate, the psychiatrist may prescribe medication as part of your child’s treatment plan. A prescription will be posted to the pharmacy of your choice. Please note that as the prescription is private, the pharmacy will charge for the medication. Prior to prescribing medication, we will require blood pressure and heart rate readings, as well as your child’s weight.
In some instances, we will require the opinion of a cardiologist prior to prescribing certain types of medication for ADHD. We would require the opinion of a cardiologist prior to issuing medication if any of the following apply: history of congenital heart disease or previous cardiac surgery
- history of sudden death in a first-degree relative under 40 years suggesting a cardiac disease
- shortness of breath on exertion compared with peers
- fainting on exertion or in response to fright or noise
- palpitations that are rapid, regular and start and stop suddenly (fleeting occasional bumps are usually ectopic and do not need investigation)
- chest pain suggesting cardiac origin
- signs of heart failure
- a murmur heard on cardiac examination
- if blood pressure is consistently above the 95th centile for age and height for children and young people
If a cardiology opinion is required, we can write to your child’s GP and ask them to make a referral via the NHS. In instances where the GP is unable to make a cardiology referral or if it is your preference, your child’s doctor can refer your child to a private cardiologist of your choice. Typically, in children, first line treatment is to trial cognitive and behavioural interventions and psychoeducation in the home and school environment before proceeding to medication if necessary.
11. Can a GP prescribe medication for ADHD/ADD?
Most GPs are willing to take over prescribing after approximately 3 months when a child is considered stable on medication. It is recommended to discuss shared care agreements with the GP at the earliest opportunity.
12. Can medication be obtained through repeat prescriptions?
Once a child is stable on their medication but not quite at the shared care agreement stage, they can request repeat prescriptions via the website. Where prescriptions are issued within appointments, there is no prescription charge. However, when issued outside of appointments, which will typically occur on a monthly basis when your child is on stable dose of medication being prescribed by your child’s doctor at Psymplicity, prescriptions are subject to an administrative fee as per our website. See our latest pricing page for further details. As Psymplicity will be issuing a private prescription, the cost of the medication issued by and invoiced by the pharmacy will require payment by the parent to the pharmacy. Indicative pricing can be found by looking at the BNF website, selecting a medication, going to the medicinal form section where the baseline price of each branded and generic medication is available. Pharmacies will typically charge more than this and charge for direct home delivery where this service is requested.
13. Can a child with ADHD/ADD remain under private care?
Yes, a child and parent can choose for the child continue receiving ADHD/ADD treatment under private care. They can request repeat prescriptions and have 3-monthly reviews with the psychiatrist.
14. Can a GP prescribe medication based on the psychiatrist's diagnosis?
This is something that would need to be discussed with the GP. Some GPs may be willing to prescribe medication based on the diagnosis provided by the psychiatrist.
During school holidays, our child ADHD appointments can still go ahead without the respective forms being completed by their school. You will receive a clinic letter with a provisional diagnosis following the initial assessment. When your child returns to school and the school return the completed forms to us, a final clinic letter will be sent out confirming the diagnosis.
We hope these FAQs have provided you with the information you were seeking. If you would like to go ahead and book the appointment, please click here to book.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information. We look forward to assisting you on your ADHD assessment journey.