ADHD Training for Primary Care Professionals

Despite ADHD impacting around 5% of children in the UK, a lot of healthcare professionals are ill-equipped to deal with this disorder, especially in primary care. Untreated and undiagnosed ADHD can strongly impact individuals throughout their lifetime. It is therefore vital that individuals access treatment and diagnosis at an early stage. The diagnosis pathway for ADHD is complex and varies across countries. However, in many countries, specialist services are responsible for ADHD diagnosis and treatment, following a referral from a primary care physician (PCP). Without such referral, individuals are often unable to access care. Previous studies have shown that PCPs are often ill-equipped to deal with individuals with ADHD, highlighting a lack of knowledge and training, directly impacting access to care. To increase PCPs’ knowledge of ADHD, a novel online training program was developed. This innovative approach included co-production with PCPs throughout the development process and is the only online ADHD training to date tailored for PCPs that has been evaluated through a randomised control trial. This chapter first presents common ADHD pathways to care and the barriers to PCPs’ understanding of ADHD. The chapter then looks at the development and evaluation of an online intervention aimed at increasing PCPs’ confidence and understanding of ADHD.