We currently provide the following services through the NHS Right to Choose scheme:
If you are seeking an assessment with us, follow these steps:
ProblemShared is regulated by the CQC, meaning we are held to the highest standards of care.
We are a fully qualified NHS provider, and are committed to excellence across our entire service.
Our neurodevelopmental team include occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, nurses, clinical psychologist and psychiatrists.
They are all highly qualified, accredited by their relevant professional bodies, and follow the codes of conduct drawn from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
If you are a registered NHS patient in England and are referred by your GP for specialist treatment, such as a neurodevelopmental assessment, you have the legal right to choose an appropriate healthcare provider.
This is known as your Right to Choose.
It means you can decide which organisation will oversee your care, as long as they are located in England and fully qualified.
Right to Choose allows the NHS to better manage its wait lists and for you to access support faster.
If you’d like to know more, you can follow this link to read more on the NHS website.
If you have any specific questions or concerns, you can email us at: support@problemshared.net
Send an emailYou will need to speak to your GP and request a referral under Right to Choose. If they agree that you may have ADHD or autism and need an assessment, you have a legal right to opt for a provider of your choice, such as ProblemShared.
We will assess adults aged 18 and over under Right to Choose. There is a possibility that if you meet any of the clinical, technology related, and general suitability criteria then you may not be eligible for a Right to Choose assessment. You can find the suitability criteria on our dedicated webpage.
If your GP is refusing to make a referral for a non-clinical reason (for example, due to funding concerns), you can ask them to read the NHS information governing patient choice. There is a chance that confusion has been caused by the idea that we have not been commissioned by your ICB, which is not a legitimate cause for refusal by your GP, or that your GP needs to ask for permission from your ICB first, which again is not a valid reason for refusal.
Currently, RTC only currently covers England.
Unfortunately not. Currently, Right to Choose only covers England, and you need to be registered with a GP in England to be eligible.
Yes, we hold NHS standard contracts across England to provide NHS Right to Choose for both ADHD and autism assessments to adults. We are also able to offer post-diagnostic support which includes ADHD medication where appropriate, as well as psychoeducation workshops.
If your child is a teenager of consenting age i.e. 16 or 17, then you cannot make them undertake an assessment against their will. The consenting age of a young person is determined through the Gillick Competency test which is not determined by age, but is used in a wider context to help assess whether a child has the maturity to make their own decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions. Your GP will perform this Gillick Competency assessment.
Our current wait list for an assessment is between 12-24 weeks. This is the same for Right to Choose ADHD and autism assessments.
Once your GP has referred you and this has been accepted by our clinical team, you will recieve and email to the email address that you provided asking you to register as a ProblemShared client.
Following the completion of your online assessments, you will recieve your diagnosis. If your diagnosis is positive, we will discuss medication options with you (ADHD only), and you will be invited to take part in our psychoeducation sessions at no additional fee. If your diagnosis is not positive then you will be discharged back to your GP.
Not currently. For issues that aren’t related to ADHD or autism you will need to speak to your GP for further advice.
Due to the current global shortage of ADHD medication, we are monitoring supply closely and are only prescribing medication where supply is stable. You can monitor the dedicated page on our website for more details.
If you do not receive a diagnosis, your clinician will send their findings and recommendations to you and your GP, and you will be discharged from our service back into the care of your GP. The cost of your assessment will still be covered and you will not have to pay anything.
Please contact our customer service team at: support@problemshared.net or you can also call 0203 835 2900.
No, the referral must come directly from your GP. ProblemShared is not currently offering our Right to Choose service on a self-pay basis.
Yes, as long as your GP agrees to change the referral to a Right to Choose ADHD or autism assessment.
No, you do not have to wait for your ICB to agree.
You will need to speak to your GP and request a referral under Right to Choose. If they agree to refer you then you will still have to go through our assessment process, despite having had a private self-funded assessment. We will not be able to provide medication or post-diagnostic care unless you have recieved a diagnosis from a ProblemShared practitioner.
If you were assessed by an NHS consultant pyshciatrist, then you will not be able to access as assessment through Right to Chose with us, and you will need to pay privately. However, if your initial diagnosis was done privately then you can access an assessment from ProblemShared under Right to Choose if you recieve a referral from your GP.
Following a positive diagnosis, if you choose to opt for medication, you will have monthly reviews with a team of expert ADHD nurses who will look at your specific care and prescribing needs. We will work directly with both your GP and your NHS service who will continue to prescribe your medication once it has been optimised which is called shared care. In order to access our medication service, your GP must have agreed to shared care when they referred you.
No, you can only access our medication service if you have had an assessment and received a positive diagnosis through ProblemShared.
Yes. If you have been diagnosed with ProblemShared and move into our medication pathway you will not have to cover the cost of medication as your GP will have already agreed to shared care. However, you may have to pay for the standard NHS prescription charge of £9.65, unless you are exempt.
No, you can only access our RTC treatment service if you have had your assessment with us.
At ProblemShared we believe in helping clients throughout their diagnosis journey. For this reason we will be offering post-diagnostic sessions as part of our Right to Choose service.
Additional talk therapy sessions are available to clients, but will need to be self-funded. You can access this service through our website.
Yes, psychoeducation workshops are covered as part of the post-diagnosistic support following a positive diagnosis through our Right to Choose programme.
There are 4 weekly 90-minute sessions which aim to provide a safe, structured environment to allow opportunity for reflection, discussion and collaboration. We want to provide the tools to those with ADHD and autism to understand their own identity, and be able to process their emotional response to the diagnosis.
The sessions are grouped, with 8-10 people per group, and cover a variety of topics each and are supplemented with other materials, such as webinars, reading materials and signposting which we provide for the client.
Please contact support@problemshared.net or call 0203 835 2900
Once we recieve your referral fron your GP, and our clinical team have assessed your case then we will contact you via the email address that you provided. You can contact your GP for upates on your referral before this stage.
We hope that you will have a smooth experience with us, however if you feel that the service received has fallen below our high standard of care, then please contact us at complaints@problemshared.net. We will acknowledge your email within 3 working days and conduct an investigation. We seek to resolve concerns quickly and will stay in contact with you throughout the investigation. It's often helpful for us to speak to you by phone to fully understand the nature of your concern and so we may arrange a convenient time to speak with you. We aim to resolve all matters within 28 working days and if you would like a written report, we can provide this for you.
We would need to assess your capacity to make decisions regarding your care for yourself. If you are deemed to be Gillick competent and have the understanding and maturity to fully understand what is involved, then we could proceed without your parent's/caregivers involvement.
However, we would always encourage you to discuss your healthcare with your parent/caregiver and involve them where possible.
Please be aware that we ask for an informant to provide additional information as part of the assessment process, and this is usually a parent/caregiver with specific knowledge of your early years and development. Not having this information may mean we are unable to conclude your assessment.
If you were to require medication following an ADHD assessment, we would request that your parent/caregiver are part of any discussion about the medication and would be reluctant to initiate medication without their prior knowledge.
An informant is someone who can tell us about any potential signs of a condition that you displayed during your early childhood and development, or that you display currently, and how this impacts your functioning.
An informant preferably should be someone who has known you since your early childhood, such as a parent/caregiver or sibling. If this is not possible, a long-term partner or close friend or colleague can be your informant.
In the absence of any of these options, a member of our clinical team will be in touch to discuss alternative options.