ADHD clinic for adults: Feedback on services for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

With waiting times for ADHD referrals running at 156 weeks in Islington, the CCG asked Healthwatch to help them review the existing service to see how waiting times can be reduced. For this report HW spoke to 7 current users of the service; two attended a meeting, four service users were interviewed by phone and one gave feedback by email.

Key learning points from these interviews were:

• All the respondents (except for one who was assessed when the service was fairly new so didn’t have to wait very long) waited from 6 to 12 months for the assessment, with some finding the initial interview distressing and the wait excruciating.

• Patients were very willing to consider alternative models if this would help others (or themselves) to be seen more quickly. They felt a need for the service to be more holistic.

• It was felt that other staff such as nurses and volunteer (with lived in experience) could have been involved in the process.

• There were mixed feelings about group support/work as the respondents all had different symptoms. Three respondents found group sessions would have been useful while others were not so sure. The respondent who sent feedback via email said it would be useful to know who to contact to discuss any concerns relating to ADHD medication he was taking.

• There was a suggestion that it would be helpful to access support and advice whilst waiting for assessment. This seemed like a good idea as most people who were sent for assessment did end up with a diagnosis, but even if they did not, they could benefit from the learning around issues such as sleep and hygiene.

Overall HW gave some additional thoughts/suggestions to help improve the service including how to find a quicker way to have patients’ mediations reviewed by the trust, if their GP is unable to do this and the need to be seen quicker.

No further recommendations were made by HW and there was no response from the provider.