ADHD assessment and treatment

Nick is a psychiatrist specialising in child and adolescent, and general adult psychiatry. He assesses and treats ADHD across both, which means he can follow a presentation from adolescence into adult life rather than handing it on at eighteen.

ADHD is rarely the only thing present. Anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep disturbance and, in adults, substance use either sit alongside it or account for the symptoms outright, and separating them is the substance of the assessment. At Pandion these are screened as standard rather than treated as an optional extra. Where ADHD is not the right answer, that is said plainly, along with what the assessment did find.

His general adult training means he is comfortable where the picture is complicated: ADHD alongside mood disorder, psychosis, or a history that makes the diagnosis harder to read. He also sees people experiencing situational distress rather than a disorder, which is a distinction worth making rather than treating everything as a diagnosis waiting to happen.

How he works

Nick provides individualised, evidence-based care, starting by understanding a person’s story, their experiences and their relationships. He works with people and, where relevant, their families, to agree shared goals and a path forward.

Treatment plans take in social and psychological circumstances alongside medication and physical health, and are built around the person’s strengths and interests. He works with children, adults and families from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds.

He draws on music, visual arts and sport in his work with both children and adults, which is often how a conversation gets started with a young person who does not want to have it.

Background and training

Nick completed a Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Newcastle, then specialised in psychiatry at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital and Royal Darwin Hospital in the Northern Territory. He gained a certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry through the Mindful Centre at the University of Melbourne.

He has worked with a diverse range of people in both hospital and community settings, across urban, regional and remote Australia. Alongside his work with Pandion Health he continues in public hospital and community settings, and takes on teaching and advocacy work.

Outside the clinic

Nick spends his time with his family, travelling, and on music, visual arts and sport.