Post by robl on Dec 27, 2022 10:47:51 GMT
Hello,
Nice to meet you all
I am a parent of a lovely 11 year old boy who we suspect has ADHD and possibly other related issues. These issues impact his school and our home life.
Rather than focus on his symptoms, I would instead like some advice on getting a diagnosis and options available.
He started highschool this year, but for the last five years we have had problems getting support from the school, even though his symptoms presented early on and caused him problems with school. However, in his last year of primary school he thankfully had an excellent teacher who agreed with us that there are underlying issues with attention and memory and that there seems to be an underlying problem that needs assessing. With their support, we arranged an initial GP phone appointment with the go psychiatrist. After a telephone conversation where we highlighted his ADHD symptoms, the GP pyschiatric nurse agreed that a further follow up was indeed recommended, but we would need some supporting evidence from the school with a cover letter.
With support from the school support officer who spent time with our son, they highlighted the issues they identified in a letter, and they also recommended in the letter that further diagnosis be explored by an ADHD consultant as his problems have been interferring with his education. So we forwarded the letter to the GP surgery as we were told by the nurse.
The GP surgery wrote back with a generic response and said that there is no evidence of ADHD and therefore no need for a consultation. Well, of course there is no evidence - we need a diagnosis for that, but the school shared in depth examples of his problems, all of which revolved around attention, zoning out, confusion and other matters. When we told the school of the GP response, they told us that this is a common problem and we will need to keep fighting for a positive answer. But it could take several years for the GP to cave in.
But due to GP backlogs and our GPs refusals to even arrange for a specialist to explore his problems, we're at a loss. We need this issue sorted now, not three years down the road. The problems are getting worse to the point where it is starting to impact the mental health of myself and my partner. And I worry about my son not being prepared for higher education if he does not have the tools to deal with his disorder (whether it's ADHD or not).
We live in Norfolk and so I was considering paying for a private screening and diagnosis at the Norfolk ADHD centre. It's quite costly but I am prepared to pay whatever is necessary to expedite this and get a final diagnosis.
I guess I'm frustrated and at the end of my tether with the GP system. And wondered if anyone has any similar experiences and what they recommend to get screened/diagnosed.
Thank you
Nice to meet you all
I am a parent of a lovely 11 year old boy who we suspect has ADHD and possibly other related issues. These issues impact his school and our home life.
Rather than focus on his symptoms, I would instead like some advice on getting a diagnosis and options available.
He started highschool this year, but for the last five years we have had problems getting support from the school, even though his symptoms presented early on and caused him problems with school. However, in his last year of primary school he thankfully had an excellent teacher who agreed with us that there are underlying issues with attention and memory and that there seems to be an underlying problem that needs assessing. With their support, we arranged an initial GP phone appointment with the go psychiatrist. After a telephone conversation where we highlighted his ADHD symptoms, the GP pyschiatric nurse agreed that a further follow up was indeed recommended, but we would need some supporting evidence from the school with a cover letter.
With support from the school support officer who spent time with our son, they highlighted the issues they identified in a letter, and they also recommended in the letter that further diagnosis be explored by an ADHD consultant as his problems have been interferring with his education. So we forwarded the letter to the GP surgery as we were told by the nurse.
The GP surgery wrote back with a generic response and said that there is no evidence of ADHD and therefore no need for a consultation. Well, of course there is no evidence - we need a diagnosis for that, but the school shared in depth examples of his problems, all of which revolved around attention, zoning out, confusion and other matters. When we told the school of the GP response, they told us that this is a common problem and we will need to keep fighting for a positive answer. But it could take several years for the GP to cave in.
But due to GP backlogs and our GPs refusals to even arrange for a specialist to explore his problems, we're at a loss. We need this issue sorted now, not three years down the road. The problems are getting worse to the point where it is starting to impact the mental health of myself and my partner. And I worry about my son not being prepared for higher education if he does not have the tools to deal with his disorder (whether it's ADHD or not).
We live in Norfolk and so I was considering paying for a private screening and diagnosis at the Norfolk ADHD centre. It's quite costly but I am prepared to pay whatever is necessary to expedite this and get a final diagnosis.
I guess I'm frustrated and at the end of my tether with the GP system. And wondered if anyone has any similar experiences and what they recommend to get screened/diagnosed.
Thank you