Post by JJ on Mar 15, 2014 16:30:39 GMT
Info as of March 2014:
I went to an ADHD conference last week, which was held by North East London Foundation Trust to help educate about ADHD. I asked an adult psychiatrist who was attending the conference about the services there:
This is a Mental Health Trust and it provides mental health services for the London Boroughs of Havering, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham.
It was the case (up to a month ago), that GPs would refer to the Access Team from NELFT. The person would be seen by someone in the Access Team, who would then refer to the appropriate professional in that Access Team.
In that Access Team are general psychiatrists, all of whom have been offered training in adult adhd and they would diagnose it. The psych I spoke to said she prescribed stimulants and she was speaking about trying different ones when the first lot didn't have enough benefit ie she had an openness to NICE guidelines.
She also said she thought that generally GPs would enter into shared care agreements - although she made the point she'd not long been in the team after a period of absence.
She said that the London Borough of Havering only had, in the last month, set up an Adult Adhd clinic, which had 1 psych and was currently due to operate one day every other month. She thought that would end up not being enough, but emphasised the newness.
So the process for this would be almost the same: GP refers to Access Team, but assessor refers to clinic rather than psych in the Access Team.
So this is all very positive and the Consultant Paediatrician Dr Puvanendran and the Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Giovanni Giaroli from NELFT, who were the speakers, were passionate about increasing awareness of it in children and adults and educating people and especially the professionals about its prevalence and need to be recognised.
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Two depressing things though......
1) The conference was in 3 parts and the last one was specifically for GPs and Psychs. There was an interactive bit to gather info (everyone had an electronic voting pad). I can't remember exactly, but this session was made up of equal nos of psychs and GPs and about 20% defined themselves as 'other'.
After registering their background, they were asked to tick all the problems for people with adhd from a list of about 10 I think. I didn't get a chance to write them down, but every one was an adhd problem - organisation, time keeping, distractibility and so on.
In the morning session with parents and carers, every point was ticked and the results showed up on a bar graph - each category had a high bar, although some were higher than others.
In the GP / psych session, ONLY 'behaviour problems' and 'low self esteem' were ticked.... . This was before the training session though.
2) I spoke to a rep from Janssen (who make concerta) and asked him whether there was anything he knew of on the horizon to suggest that it would be licenced for adults who were diagnosed as adults.
I must make it very clear that he said he didn't know and he was only giving his own opinion on the likelihood - but he said he didn't think it would ever happen as it costs too much and the market is small.
He was unaware there was any significant problem with adults obtaining meds / GPs refusing to prescribe and genuinely surprised when I told him. I gave him this forum's address and told him to look at all the stories of people having difficulties.
After he left, I spoke to the adult psych (who gave me the service details above) and she told me half her ADHDers were adults diagnosed as adults - and the ladies from Liverpool Ladders said half the people they help are the same. Both, of course, made the point, that a lot of parents realise when their children are diagnosed.
Therefore, the pharmas themselves, or via UKAAN need to be told this is a real issue and a currently expanding market.
Oh, and latest evidence is that adhd has a prevalence of 8.8% (as relayed by Dr Giaroli) and in this country, only 1/20 of ADHDers are diagnosed.
I went to an ADHD conference last week, which was held by North East London Foundation Trust to help educate about ADHD. I asked an adult psychiatrist who was attending the conference about the services there:
This is a Mental Health Trust and it provides mental health services for the London Boroughs of Havering, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham.
It was the case (up to a month ago), that GPs would refer to the Access Team from NELFT. The person would be seen by someone in the Access Team, who would then refer to the appropriate professional in that Access Team.
In that Access Team are general psychiatrists, all of whom have been offered training in adult adhd and they would diagnose it. The psych I spoke to said she prescribed stimulants and she was speaking about trying different ones when the first lot didn't have enough benefit ie she had an openness to NICE guidelines.
She also said she thought that generally GPs would enter into shared care agreements - although she made the point she'd not long been in the team after a period of absence.
She said that the London Borough of Havering only had, in the last month, set up an Adult Adhd clinic, which had 1 psych and was currently due to operate one day every other month. She thought that would end up not being enough, but emphasised the newness.
So the process for this would be almost the same: GP refers to Access Team, but assessor refers to clinic rather than psych in the Access Team.
So this is all very positive and the Consultant Paediatrician Dr Puvanendran and the Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Giovanni Giaroli from NELFT, who were the speakers, were passionate about increasing awareness of it in children and adults and educating people and especially the professionals about its prevalence and need to be recognised.
---------------------
Two depressing things though......
1) The conference was in 3 parts and the last one was specifically for GPs and Psychs. There was an interactive bit to gather info (everyone had an electronic voting pad). I can't remember exactly, but this session was made up of equal nos of psychs and GPs and about 20% defined themselves as 'other'.
After registering their background, they were asked to tick all the problems for people with adhd from a list of about 10 I think. I didn't get a chance to write them down, but every one was an adhd problem - organisation, time keeping, distractibility and so on.
In the morning session with parents and carers, every point was ticked and the results showed up on a bar graph - each category had a high bar, although some were higher than others.
In the GP / psych session, ONLY 'behaviour problems' and 'low self esteem' were ticked.... . This was before the training session though.
2) I spoke to a rep from Janssen (who make concerta) and asked him whether there was anything he knew of on the horizon to suggest that it would be licenced for adults who were diagnosed as adults.
I must make it very clear that he said he didn't know and he was only giving his own opinion on the likelihood - but he said he didn't think it would ever happen as it costs too much and the market is small.
He was unaware there was any significant problem with adults obtaining meds / GPs refusing to prescribe and genuinely surprised when I told him. I gave him this forum's address and told him to look at all the stories of people having difficulties.
After he left, I spoke to the adult psych (who gave me the service details above) and she told me half her ADHDers were adults diagnosed as adults - and the ladies from Liverpool Ladders said half the people they help are the same. Both, of course, made the point, that a lot of parents realise when their children are diagnosed.
Therefore, the pharmas themselves, or via UKAAN need to be told this is a real issue and a currently expanding market.
Oh, and latest evidence is that adhd has a prevalence of 8.8% (as relayed by Dr Giaroli) and in this country, only 1/20 of ADHDers are diagnosed.