Tower Hamlets CAMHS - ADHD Assessments

About your ADHD Assessment

Are you or your child wondering what will happen at your ADHD assessment, or how you can prepare? Take a look at this page to find answers to commonly asked questions and for general information about your assessment

What to expect at an ADHD Assessment

You and your child will meet with a member of our team. We don't perform any blood tests or do any other special investigations that you need to prepare for. It will be a chance for you and your child to tell us about any difficulties or worries that may be causing problems at home, school or social situations. We will also want to hear about what is going well.

You should make sure you leave at least 90 minutes for the appointment.

Questions we might ask

We will want to ask lots of questions about symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity. Please come prepared with examples of these difficulties.

We will need to know how they are causing problems and for how long.

We will be keen to hear what things have been tried to help.

We will also ask questions about your home and family life and other associated problems like behaviour, friendships, mood, sleep and anxiety.

It can often be helpful for us to see parents and young people separately as well as together. Let us know if you have any concerns about your child coming to the appointment.

Other tests

Sometimes, we decide it might be helpful to do another test called the QbTest. This could be done before or after your assessment appointment with us. We might do it because there are different opinions from different people and in different settings about features of ADHD. It is a way of us measuring hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity in a controlled setting and comparing it with children of the same age and sex.

Place holder for a video about coming to an appointment in CAMHS and the clinical room

What happens after my assessment?

Whenever we can, we try to come to a decision about a diagnosis with you in the appointment. Sometimes it is helpful for us to go back and check information, or discuss with other members of the team. We might even have to get some more information from someone else. This is often the case if we find out there are reports from other professionals that nobody has sent to us. Common examples are educational psychology reports or speech and language therapy reports. If you know you have had these done, please make sure we have them.

Within 4 weeks, you should have a written copy of our final report and had a discussion with us about next steps. If we are unable to produce the report within 4 weeks, we will let you know and tell you why.

Most appointments take around 90 minutes. Please arrive on time. If you are late, we might not have time to see you.

We need to speak to someone who can tell us about your child's symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. They also need to know as much as possible about their life story and development.

Where possible, your child should come. If you have worries about them coming, let us know. If there are things you'd like to discuss alone, you can bring someone who can sit with your child for a while.

If there are people with parental responsibility who have different ideas about ADHD, it is your responsibility to let us know so we can consider how to complete the assessment.

Make sure you've come prepared with examples of ADHD and any other information about your child's development.

You might want to bring a favourite toy, or some games or activities for your child.

Of course. We know that any children would find a 90 minute appointment challenging. We are very happy, if you are, for your child to use a phone/screen/tablet in the appointment. It might be an idea to bring some headphones.