Getting started: accessing our patient portal, and the steps to take before your appointment

Welcome to the Centre for ADHD Research & Excellence, or CARE ADHD for short. We’re grateful to be part of your journey, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. 

We’re CQC-registered, and an approved NHS Right to Choose provider, so you can rest assured that you’re in safe hands. 

Once we've processed a referral from your GP, or we've received payment from you as a private client, you’ll be sent a welcome message from us which invites you to complete some tasks in our patient portal.

🎯 You’ll need to complete these tasks before we can book you in. The sooner you work through them, the sooner we’ll be in touch. 

1. Login to our patient portal using the link in the SMS or email invitation you've received.

2. Once logged in, start by opening the Welcome to CARE ADHD form and follow the instructions.

3. Most of our pathways will require you to upload:

   • Your photo ID (for example, a passport or driving license) 

   • Your Summary Care Record (you can get this from your GP).  

   You might want to get these documents in place so you're ready to get started when the invitation SMS or email reaches you.

4. If you're entering the assessment pathway, you might also want to prepare by connecting with your childhood and adult informants. The pre-assessment process includes questionnaires that need to be completed by people who know you well. More details on this can be found here. 

📬 You don't need to let us know when you've completed all the steps in the patient portal. We'll be notified about this automatically, and you'll move straight to the next step in the process.

• For those awaiting an assessment, this means our bookings team will contact you to schedule your assessment. They'll normally be in touch within around 2 weeks of you completing all the steps, but at busy times it may take a little longer.

• For those starting the medication pathway, you'll proceed to a clinical review. Our clinicians may reach out if we need additional information to ensure it’s safe for you to start medication. Once the review is complete and you're cleared to proceed, our bookings team will call to schedule your appointment.

  ⚠️ We know many patients are eager to move forward, and we appreciate your patience. To keep things running smoothly, please wait for our team to reach out rather than contacting us for updates, as this helps us focus on progressing everyone through the pathway.

You can find up to date information about our waiting times here. 

The assessment is a comprehensive, 1-hour interview via video call, and you're welcome to bring a close family member or friend for support if you’d like. Sometimes their observations can be really helpful for both you and the assessor. Here’s an article and video to help you learn more about the assessment. 

In most cases, your clinician will share the outcome of your assessment at the end of your appointment. But on rare occasions they might need to seek further information from you, your doctor, or our Medical Director before they can confirm the outcome of your assessment. 

Following your assessment, you’ll receive a detailed outcome report, which will be shared with your GP (you’ll have the chance to request any amendments first). If you’re diagnosed with ADHD, you'll also have the option to begin treatment. 

If you're entering the treatment pathway, you'll be booked in for 3 titration appointments. The first appointment will be an opportunity for you to discuss any items you raised for your clinician during the pre-appointment steps in our patient portal. Your clinician will usually process your prescription at the end of the first appointment, so you can expect to start your medication within about a week of your appointment, as soon as it reaches you.

You can learn more about the titration pathway and what to expect, just here.

If you have any questions, please take a look around this Knowledge Base. Here you can find detailed information about ADHD and every step of the process, including treatment. You can also chat to our virtual assistant, Jessica, by clicking on the blue icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

By using the Knowledge Base or asking Jessica, you help us keep response times quick, allowing us to focus on booking appointments and reducing waiting times for all.  

But of course we're here to help, so if you can’t find the information you need you can reach out to us via the contact forms on our website.