Families\u00a0are\u00a0feeling stressed,\u00a0powerless\u00a0and ‘forever\u00a0in limbo’ as they wait months,\u00a0or\u00a0sometimes\u00a0years,\u00a0for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments, according to a new study.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Research led\u00a0by the University of Southampton and King’s College London\u00a0examined the experiences of parents\u00a0navigating waiting lists for\u00a0ADHD diagnosis with\u00a0Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)\u00a0in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NHS data\u00a0for\u00a0the end of\u00a0September 2025\u00a0shows\u00a0that\u00a0of those children\u00a0(up to 17 years old)\u00a0waiting for an assessment\u00a0with the\u00a0service,\u00a0over 63 percent\u00a0spent\u00a0more than\u00a0a year\u00a0on the list, and a third of these\u00a0were waiting over two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CAMHS\u00a0are\u00a0experiencing\u00a0enormous\u00a0demand to offer\u00a0timely\u00a0support to young people.\u00a0Staff\u00a0working in these services\u00a0are\u00a0under\u00a0huge pressure, and\u00a0in-turn,\u00a0parents\u00a0and their children,\u00a0are also\u00a0suffering\u00a0\u2013 with some concern that long wait times could\u00a0exacerbate\u00a0ADHD symptoms.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Ellen Hedstrom,\u00a0lead author<\/p>\n
She adds:\u00a0“Through our study, we wanted to\u00a0better\u00a0understand how parents experience\u00a0the time between their child’s referral, an ADHD assessment,\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a0diagnostic outcome. Also, what\u00a0impact\u00a0this\u00a0has\u00a0on them and their child.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Study findings are published in the journal\u00a0Health Expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers conducted\u00a0anonymised\u00a0interviews with a total of 41 parents\u00a0of children aged between five and 11 years old. Their wait times ranged between seven months and over two years. Thirty\u00a0percent\u00a0of participants fell between\u00a0an\u00a018 and 24 month\u00a0wait,\u00a0and ten percent over\u00a0two years.\u00a0About 50 percent of children\u00a0hadn’t\u00a0had their\u00a0initial\u00a0ADHD\u00a0assessment\u00a0at the time of interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strong feedback was given to the research team by parents. Many of felt that:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many parents\u00a0believed\u00a0there was a disparity between the support they felt they needed and the support they received.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As one parent, Jayne, put it: “It’s hard because there is no support, at the moment, until you get that diagnosis and you’re forever in limbo.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another, Jaz, said: “We’ve wasted over 2 years of her education, it is a huge percentage. And in that time, she was just getting\u00a0further and further\u00a0behind.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others were grappling with whether they should try and find the money to go private, as in the case of Sarah: “We are struggling a bit and it would be nice to know whether we should be trying to save up to get him seen privately, if it’s\u00a0gonna\u00a0be years and years, then that’s what we’d do. If\u00a0it’s\u00a0gonna\u00a0be another 6 months, then\u00a0we’ll\u00a0wait.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the same turn,\u00a0there was\u00a0also empathy\u00a0for health care staff and\u00a0understanding\u00a0that clinical services are under\u00a0enormous\u00a0strain.\u00a0Some parents said they wanted to place as\u00a0few demands\u00a0as possible\u00a0on staff, due to\u00a0this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parents’\u00a0suggestions\u00a0for improvement\u00a0included regular updates of\u00a0their status on the\u00a0waiting\u00a0list,\u00a0including\u00a0confirmation of\u00a0wait times; a\u00a0digitised system where parents could logon, check any progress, or book appointments; also, the idea of\u00a0a named key-worker who they could turn to for help\u00a0and support while waiting.\u00a0Parents\u00a0also expressed the need for help with\u00a0skills and strategies for themselves to\u00a0manage the behavior of their children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the authors of the study point to\u00a0a recent\u00a0successful\u00a0local authority\u00a0scheme\u00a0which piloted a neurodiversity\u00a0tool\u00a0\u2013 offering early profiling from trained professionals. This gave parents and\u00a0schools\u00a0knowledge\u00a0for early intervention to help children while they wait for\u00a0formal diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Many tools and platforms already\u00a0exist,\u00a0or\u00a0could be developed to meet the needs of CAMHS,” concludes Dr Hedstrom. “This would not only give parents more autonomy in the way that they manage their time on a wait list and how they access much-needed information, but also alleviate the burden on mental health services, resulting in a more efficient service.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
University of Southampton<\/a><\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Hedstrom, E., et al. (2026). \u201cUntil You Get the Diagnosis You\u2019re Forever in Limbo\u201d – Parents\u2019 Experiences of Waiting for an Attention\u2010Deficit\/Hyperactivity Disorder Assessment With Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.\u00a0Health Expectations. DOI: 10.1111\/hex.70569.\u00a0https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/hex.70569<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families\u00a0are\u00a0feeling stressed,\u00a0powerless\u00a0and ‘forever\u00a0in limbo’ as they wait months,\u00a0or\u00a0sometimes\u00a0years,\u00a0for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments, according to a new study.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4103,835,103,8018,61,60,410,89,2055],"class_list":["post-366747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-children","tag-education","tag-health","tag-hyperactivity","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-research","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}