Private ADHD assessment for children

[OtterlyOtterly2]

Looking for recommendations for private ADHD assessment for a child in Scotland please! No idea where to start! thanks in advance

GP first and foremost.

Thanks. Yip, started at GP and now find ourselves forced to explore private assessment. GP wasn't much help in suggesting anywhere unfortunately.

We were on the queue for 4 years in Edinburgh for my child. That was a few years back and CAMHS has got much worse since then. We took our other child to the Edinburgh Practice. There is no point even investigating the NHS route in my opinion. CAMHS isn’t failing - it has already failed.

It's dreadful isn't it!

Would you recommend the Edinburgh Practice? Do they prescribe medication if they feel it's needed? I've come across a few private places that will diagnose, but don't do prescriptions unfortunately.

Hope things have improved for your family

There are several place where you could go for assessment but there are online options available for assessment as well which can be useful on internationally acceptable standards. You could also check https://adhdcertify.co.uk/.

Thank you. I will check this out.

There’s somewhere in Stirling that someone I know used and were recommended/considered reputable.
I don’t know the name but i’m sure if you Google you’d find it.

Get onto the nhs list or you will pay for medication forever. We used ADHD direct, we're happy with them (and the diagnosis was eventually backed up by the NHS one 4 years later - now back on medication list with NHS). It's a scandal

Thank you, I will have a look just now.

My son is an adult but we went to the Dawn Practice in Glasgow

Another recommendation for the Edinburgh Practice.

None of mine have been diagnosed by cahms. Just a pediatrician. Worth going that way round?

ADHD Direct is in Glasgow, yeah?

I spoke to my GP a while ago and they said they could potentially take over the prescription from the private diagnoser longer term, depending on who the clinic doing the assessment is. That's interesting to hear it took you 4 years to get that taken on. Thanks for your post

Oh that's interesting. So was that from a referral from your GP?

They are yes - we went there initially but subsequent reviews were all done online.
Apologies if I made it sound like we got medication from the NHS - after waiting 4 years for the diagnosis, we got that, and ds is now back on another waiting list for NHS medication - 18 months so far.
Ask your GP which provider they would accept a diagnosis and medication prescribing from. Mine wouldn't take it from anywhere

Ah okay thanks.

It's shocking what a postcode lottery this all is!

So are you on the meds waiting list through CAMHS?

Not any more, we've had to transfer to the adult list as he aged out. So do this sooner rather than later would be my advice!

https://www.advancedassessments.co.uk We had a great experience with Advanced Assessments Ltd. They were really great and the report they produced was very detailed.

Not sure if its the same in Scotland but we did right to choose via our gp. It was about 6 month wait time and we chose a provider who does medication too. All the info about who to choose and wait times etc is here adhduk.co.uk/

Sadly no right to choose scheme in Scotland

The Edinburgh Practice would be my recommendation too.

Goodness. Thats awful!

That route is usually available to under 5s.

Over 5s have to go through CAMHS

Unfortunately the system is completely broken.

NHS is really not an option. If you go privately, expect to be paying for medication for a very long time.

In theory you can go the private route, get added to the CAMHS waiting list and then have everything transferred to the NHS once you make it off the list. Unfortunately, a lot of children age out of the waiting list (either waiting for a diagnosis or waiting for medication titration) and end up on the adult waiting list, which I think is something like 17 years now (and growing).

For private providers, I would always go for one that sees the child in person rather than online, and one that can prescribe medication, but as these need to be clinical psychiatrists they will be more expensive. Remember to factor in the regular check ups they will need (every 3 months initially) - none of which is covered by the NHS.

AdHD direct. I have shared care in that my gp took over prsscribing meds - take their details to your gp first to check they are happy. They were fairest priced of private providers that had suitably qualified professionals performing diagnosis