Joanna Smith (ADHD Assessment In Adults)
Joanna Smith, a Specialist Occupational Therapist and ADHD Practitioner at Healios, is dedicated to supporting individuals through the ADHD diagnosis journey. In this conversation,...
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Who are you?
Hi, my name is Joe. Ask me anything about A-D-H-D-A-D-H-D assessments and how best to get support.
What is the difference between screening, assessment and a diagnosis for ADHD?
So screening assessments in a diagnosis is a process. So when you first start looking in to having a assessment for A DHD, you'll complete some screening questionnaires and there'll just be questions just to see how you are finding things day-to-day in relation to that kind of diagnostic criteria. That can be kind of tick boxes, it can be a general conversation with your gp. After that, then kind of thinking, okay, you know what, we're seeing some things, so actually let's move on to the full assessment. We're seeing some things, we're not quite sure what this full picture is yet. So then you move on to an assessment. An assessment is much more in depth, really trying to see, okay, is this picture A DHD or is this something else? So then with the assessment, then that's about pulling together all of the rest of those pieces. Okay, you know what? We've already got these from the screening bits. Let's see if we can kind of put all together all those edges now. And actually once that assessment's been done, what we're hoping to see then is, okay, what does this picture show? Does this picture show yes, a diagnosis of A DHD? Or does this picture maybe show something else? And that'll then obviously be your diagnosis or your non diagnosis. Depending on the outcome of that appointment, you can still get that diagnosis of A DHD without that full picture, even if there's a couple of things that's being missing. And that's just the nature of just being a human, having other things going on at one time. No one's ever only just experiencing a DHD in a vacuum. There's always lots of other things, but that's part of the digging process of having an assessment for A DHD.
What is the process of an ADHD assessment?
So the process for having an A DHD assessment can vary depending on where you are. However, generally you'll be discussing things like developmental history, so that can go all the way back, or in terms of your mother's pregnancy with you. So talk about how the pregnancy was, were there any challenges and go through looking at developmental milestones. When did you first start to walk? When did you first start to talk? Talking about school, so, okay. How did you find school? Was school easy? Were you a bit of a troublemaker? Were you always known to be a pleasure to have in class, but actually had you had in the clouds the whole time? How did you find that? Generally day to day or look at basically moving through your life chronologically? Okay. How was a transition to potential university or transition into working life and talking about all of these things in relation to the A DHD challenges that you may be experiencing. So looking, okay. Well, did you find it tricky when you moved to uni and suddenly had to do all of your own things because actually you'd never had to study and do your washing at the same time before. So they'll look at all of this kind of how your life is. What does your life look like? It's very personal. And what will also be covered then is the very specific diagnostic criteria for A DHD. So some places use the diva, which is a formal A DHD kind of diagnosis questionnaire, and it runs through the different criteria. So they'll be asking, okay, do you find paying attention to details challenging? Did you find that challenging in adulthood and in childhood? They'll run through all of those different things to see whether or not you meet that diagnostic threshold For a diagnosis of A DHD. It can be quite an intense appointment. There's a lot of digging. There's a lot of, okay, we're seeing this, but where is that stemming from? Is that stemming from one place or another place? So that we'll see a lot of questions. You'll probably think that your A DHD assess is pretty nosy in things day to day.