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After an ADHD assessment

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Next steps

This page outlines the next steps following your child’s ADHD assessment. There are different possible outcomes from the assessment. Your child may: 

  • be diagnosed with ADHD
  • need further assessment for other conditions such as autism, developmental impairment, a learning disability, developmental language disorder or developmental co-ordination disorder. Further assessment may show your child has other conditions alongside ADHD, or your child may be given a different diagnosis which better suits their needs. 
  • have a pattern of difficulties that do not fit neatly under one diagnostic heading and they may need a description of their difficulties that can be used to inform what help and support would be beneficial.

 

After ADHD assessment in Child Development and Neurodisability

What happens if your child receives an ADHD diagnosis

Once the ADHD assessment has been completed, a letter will be sent to you and to your child’s GP to summarise the assessment and confirm the diagnosis.

You will be referred to the Family Action ADHD Project. A Family Action ADHD worker will contact you on the phone to discuss the support available in Sheffield.

You will also be invited to an ADHD information course either face to face or online.

For some children, medication may be appropriate to treat ADHD. Your clinician will discuss the options in more detail as there are a number of different medicines available.

All children with an ADHD diagnosis will be offered ongoing clinic reviews whether they start medication or not.

Medication

ADHD is a treatable condition. If your child is offered medication, the different options will be discussed at your appointment. These may include:

  • stimulant medications
  • non-stimulant medications

For further information on medication, the NHS website has plenty of useful information.

What happens if your child does not receive an ADHD diagnosis

Your child may not be given a diagnosis of ADHD at the assessment. This can be for a number of different reasons and these will be explained in detail to you at the assessment.

Not being given a diagnosis of ADHD does not always mean we are saying your child doesn’t have significant difficulties or needs in other areas and they will still need help and support with these difficulties.  

After the assessment, if your child is not given a diagnosis of ADHD, you will:

  • Be referred to any relevant services for further assessment and investigation if this is identified as needed during the assessment
  • Be directed to information sites and support services to help you and your child which you can access on the Sheffield Childrens Hospital webpages

After an ADHD assessment with CAMHS

Discussing your child within our multi-disciplinary team

Once we have gathered all the information needed, we will discuss your child’s assessment within our Neurodevelopmental Assessment Team. The clinicians involved include child psychiatrists, child psychologists, specialist mental health nurses and assistant psychologists. These professionals, who may or may not have met your child, will review all the information which is presented by the assessing clinician.

The team will then together decide whether there is enough evidence to meet the criteria for a diagnosis. If there is not, we will explore another explanation for your child’s difficulties. There could be a range of explanations such as anxiety, low mood, trauma or difficult early life experiences with significant others (attachment difficulties). Your child’s difficulties may also be explained by another developmental condition such as autism or a learning disability.

Feedback

Once the above assessment has been completed, we will arrange a feedback session to discuss the outcome with you and, depending on their age, your child.

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