Once your referral has been accepted, there might be a long waiting list until your assessment. A good resource for finding out about your local pathway is the peer support website AADDUK that has a national list of local clinics and peer support groups.
You can contact your local clinic directly to find where the referral has to be sent to and what the local pathway is for your area. In most NHS areas the referral to the specialist clinic has to be made by mental health team and not your GP. The pathway is to first be seen by your GP who then refers you to a community mental health team, who in turn can make the referral to the ADHD specialist neurobehavioural psychiatrist. What is the pathway to accessing an Adult ADHD assessment on the NHS? We encourage people to request access to services, as everyday things are improving, causing the effect of sending a signal to the NHS that more resources need to be allocated for ADHD services. This might sound like a negative situation, but in many areas things are improving. Adult ADHD is often misdiagnosed or ignored.
In many areas, clinical staff have not been trained about Adult ADHD and it is common for them to not have awareness or experience of Adult ADHD and this can make the referral process more difficult. At the moment the state of adult ADHD services in the NHS is that it is a postcode lottery with many areas lacking any adult ADHD service where services do exist, they are rationed and have long waiting lists. Whilst some people have had a smooth experience with accessing services diagnostic services within only a few weeks, many other people have had a much more difficult experience accessing services. Whilst the NHS has much that it does well, due to its size and bureaucracy it can take a long time to adapt to changes and to provide resources for changes in policy. This research resulted in the 2018 NICE Guideline 87 that recommended the NHS (in England) should offer ADHD assessment and treatment. Getting diagnosed and treated for ADHD can be a lengthy and difficult process, however, over the past 20 years there have been significant breakthroughs in research concerning adult ADHD.
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