ADHD Assessments

Grant offers brief and comprehensive ADHD assessments. Brief assessments are preferred by most psychiatrists and pediatricians, although some doctors might request a comprehensive evaluation. Brief assessments do not diagnose ADHD. Brief assessments involve completing an objective test of attention and some questionnaires about your symptoms. This assists Grant to objectively determine what signs of an attention deficit might be present, and how those objective signs match your everyday experience of inattention and/or hyperactivity. The medical doctor will then consider that information, along with the results of their medical assessment, to decide the diagnosis and treatment plan (e.g., medication). Brief assessments take about 1 hour, start at $550, and include a detailed report of the findings.

Comprehensive assessments take three to four hours and are usually separated into 2 x 2-hour appointments, although this can be modified to fit your schedule. Comprehensive assessments involve completing an objective attention test, completing objective tests of other thinking skills associated with attention, discussion of your personal history and current symptoms, review of your school reports, asking someone close to you about your symptoms (e.g., family member, partner), and completing questionnaires about your symptoms. The cost varies according to how much assessment is undertaken. Please contact reception to discuss your needs and to obtain an approximate cost.

Comprehensive assessments might diagnose you with ADHD and/or another condition. Although these assessments are much more detailed and conclusive, only a psychiatrist or pediatrician can prescribe ADHD medication. Grant cannot prescribe medication because he is a clinical psychologist. It is important to consider whether the brief or comprehensive assessment best suits your needs and budget. If unsure of what to do, please contact reception to discuss your needs. We find that most doctors appreciate the brief assessment because it quickly determines whether an attention deficit may be present.

Grant can also help evaluate the effectiveness of your ADHD medication by completing the objective attention test on and off your medication, and on different dosages. As this requires multiple appointments, each appointment takes 1 hour, costs $250, and includes a report that summarises the test findings for you and your doctor.

Supervision & Case Consultation

Grant is a Board Approved Supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia. He can supervise clinical registrars, 4+2 psychologists and 5+1 psychologists to achieve their qualifications. He also provides peer supervision and professional consultations services. The fee is $230/hour + GST. GST applies to registrars, peers, and case consultations. GST does apply to 4+2 and 5+1 psychologists.

Grant provides case consultation for individuals and organisations needing assistance with clinical and medico-legal assessments, report writing, formulations, risk management, differential diagnosis, and project development. Grant’s project consultancy has included workplace issues (e.g., workshops on mental health and wellbeing), clinical software development, psychological test development, and staff training.

Proofreading & Templating

Grant provides report proofreading and templating services for psychological and medico-legal reports. This includes creating and modifying report templates to a court standard, checking that references to the relevant legislation and court rules are correct, assistance to write your qualifications and experience statement, assistance to prepare a court CV, and assistance to write succinctly without omitting relevant information.

For those satisfied with their report templates, the proofreading service can be done on a timely basis given that quick turnarounds are often expected of clinicians. Proofreading services include checking spelling, grammar, layout, clarity of opinion, proper language for the intended audience, and comments about how the report could be improved. Comments might include recommendations for further assessment considerations, additional considerations/caveats that require acknowledgement in the report (e.g., culture, psychometric strengths/weaknesses), and treatment recommendations.

Grant provides proofreading and templating for NDIS reports, victims of crime, risk assessments, fitness for trial, family law, child safety, fitness for work, compensation, malingering, personality, cognition and diagnostic workups. The fee is $230/hour and part thereof (+gst). It is recommended that clinicians add 30-minutes to an hour of Quality Assurance into their report quotes, which is commonly accepted in the medico-legal arena.

Clinical & Legal Assessments

Grant provides comprehensive psychological assessments for a variety of clinical, legal and NDIS matters. He charges the recommended rate for legal assessments ($300/hour) and the standard fee for NDIS assessments ($214.41/hour).

Criminal law

• Fitness to stand trial

• Criminal responsibility and mental impairment

• Pre-sentence reports

• Feigning, deception and malingering (mental illness, cognitive impairment, memory loss)

• Personality disorder and psychopathy

• Adult and adolescent risk of re-offending (general violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child exploitation materials, fire starting, stalking)

Compensation

• Psychological injury and personal injury claims

• Whole Person Impairment (WPI%) for WorkCover (Tasmania only)

• Victims of crime

Cognitive

• General intelligence and non-verbal intelligence

• Learning (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia)

• Attention (e.g., adult ADHD)

• Executive functions

Capacity

• Functional capacity (e.g., NDIS)

• Testamentary capacity

• Guardianship

• Administration

• Power of attorney