Getting an assessment and diagnosis for ADHD

Getting an assessment for ADHD

See your GP

They’ll guide you through this process for getting an assessment and make recommendations specific to your situation (such as using insurance, the type of specialist, referring you to the specialist and what you need to take with you).

Using insurance

Some insurers are challenged in identifying the distinction between mental health and non-neurotypical conditions. So they take the stance of excluding the whole lot.
Other insurers have recognised the challenges in the mental health support community and have relaxed their requirements.
Find out what different insurers cover in relation to the assessment and treatment of ADHD, from our friends at Willowgrove Insurance.

The specialist

The only medical professionals who are specialised to assess and diagnose ADHD are either a Paediatrician, a Psychiatrist (Child and Adolescent or Adult), a Neurologist or a Clinical Psychologist.
It may be worth noting that while a Clinical Psychologist can assess and diagnose ADHD, they cannot prescribe medication. They may be able to offer other services to support the management of ADHD, if diagnosed.
A GP is not able to complete an ADHD assessment and diagnosis, as it's a specialist mental health assessment, unless they've done further training in assessing and treating ADHD.

When choosing your specialist

You’ll be seeing this person regularly so make sure, once you’ve met them, that you’re comfortable sharing anything and everything with them.
Travel may also be a consideration given your regularity of seeing them.
Questions that you may want to consider asking them include:

How long have you been working with patients with ADHD?
What percentage of your patients have ADHD?
Have you received any training in the diagnosis or treatment of ADHD?
What is involved in the assessment—written tests/interviews?
Your typical treatment plan — behaviour modification, medication, alternative therapies?
What are the costs involved?
Do you accept my insurance?

Preparing to see the specialist

There is often a wait to see a specialist so book an appointment with this in mind, ahead of when you might need it (i.e. before school/uni term, beginning a new job etc).
Depending on whether you use insurance or not, the wait time to see a specialist can take up to six months.
They’ll likely send to you some forms and questionnaires that you’ll likely need to complete and send to them before the meeting.
They’ll review these before your first meeting with them.

ADHD assessment tools

A proper ADHD assessment should do two things:

determine whether a person has ADHD and rule out other potential reasons for the symptoms, plus
identify any other potential challenges — i.e. Anxiety, Depression, Dyslexia, Autism, Auditory Processing Disorder or OCD.

Depending on the complexity of your needs the Specialist assessment may take anywhere from an hour to more than eight hours and may require several appointments. The usual length of time in the appointment is 90 minutes but that is with having already done questionnaires and forms
Common assessments include:

ADHD rating questionnaires (called psychometrics)
Cognitive Assessments (assessing cognitive strengths, weaknesses and IQ)
Mental Health broad screener questionnaires (psychometrics to help narrow down the areas the Specialist will need to focus on in the assessment), and/or
Neuropsychological assessment of the Attention system or Executive Functioning (functional tests completed by a Psychologist).

Things to take to your meeting with your specialist

your fully completed questionnaires (send in before appointment so they can be reviewed and scored)
fully completed questionnaires from others (i.e. a teacher – this also needs to be sent to your specialist before your appointment so they can be reviewed and scored)
memory for a detailed developmental, social and family history (taking your/your child’s Well Child/Plunket book and school reports is helpful), and or
any supporting evidence (such as medical, psychological, school/employment records, or if you're an adult, a copy of the results from our self-screening tool) to the appointment.

When getting assessed to find out if you have ADHD

your first session is likely to take 60-90 minutes, and
a typical assessment for adult ADHD may take up to three hours.

Other information/observations they may request of you includes

talking to other people, like your partner or family member, and/or
in the case of children, your specialist may want to talk to a teacher, coach, or day care provider.

While they're assessing you, or your child, they'll

ask about your questionnaire responses – you may be asked to elaborate on aspects such as:

how often do you quit a task before you're done?
how often do you misplace things?
how often do you forget appointments or other important matters?
do you have trouble sitting still?
do you struggle to relax?
how often are you distracted by things around you?
development, health, family, and lifestyle history, and
Strengths, weaknesses and some of the challenges you’ve been facing.

also ask you about your medical history, as this is an important part of the evaluation. If you haven't had a medical exam recently, one might be recommended to rule out medical causes for your symptoms.
also look to see if any co-existing conditions are present.

If the co-existing condition(s) isn’t treated then the treatment for ADHD may not be as effective.

Getting a diagnosis for ADHD

When it comes to an assessment, and potentially the eventual diagnosis of ADHD, psychiatric medical doctors categorise ADHD according to a set of criteria that all appropriately trained specialist doctors and Psychologists use.

The diagnostic system used in New Zealand is called the DSM-V, and we share the use of this system with most of the English speaking world (except Europe).

Once your specialist is satisfied that their review is conclusive, they’ll share their thoughts with you. This may, or may not, result in you receiving a diagnosis for ADHD.

However, if you get a diagnosis that confirms you have ADHD, this can be an enormous relief as it often helps you to understand there is a reason for many of your current and past difficulties.

They’ll share their thoughts with you around the diagnosis and a treatment plan to suit.