On 28 March 2023, the Senate referred an inquiry into the barriers to consistent, timely and best practice assessment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and support services for people with ADHD to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report.
Based on our comprehensive experience with ADHD, Learning Links put forward a submission to the Senate Inquiry in the hope that it will lead to some meaningful outcomes.
Our team has extensive expertise working with children and adolescents with ADHD and their families. We will continue to advocate for the needs of these children as they are often faced with inadequate access to assessments, interventions and supports.
Our submission calls upon all levels of government to take meaningful and immediate action to address the entirely preventable causes for why these children and young people miss out and are left to fall behind in their development and learning, often with irreversible consequences for their ability to realise their potential.
Some of our key recommendations included:
– Increased education on the signs of ADHD to promote earlier diagnosis and intervention
– Enhanced training for healthcare professionals
– Funding to ensure assessments and diagnostic tools are more readily accessible and affordable
– Recognition of ADHD as a primary disability within the NDIS policy framework
– Greater access to evidence-based interventions for ADHD
– Collaboration with schools to implement supportive policies and practices
Learning Links is grateful for the opportunity to share our observations and recommendations for this important inquiry and look forward to the outcomes later this year.