Dr Kim Pedlow (GP with interest neurodevelopmental disorder)
Recently I have been thinking about my place in the scheme of things as a GP with an interest in neurodevelopmental disorder. Like most professionals involved in this area we have cases in the family and I have witnessed first hand the effect.
My/our network now looks after 600 such cases, initially mainly children, now a lot of adults. I network on a daily basis with developmental paediatricians, general paediatricians, psychiatrists, educational and clinical psychologists.
With the support of my network I take responsibility in this area that would be usually reserved for specialist with interest.
My legal and professional status with regards to the neurodevelopmental disorders of ADHD, autism, learning disorder is that I can suspect but then need to have these conditions confirmed by specialists either medical or psychologist depending on the case.
I’m involved in co-prescribing with ADHD medication. Have more freedom with other medications such as risperidone, clonidine, SSRI medication with adults and children.
When prescribing to children I am finding myself spending more time talking about the influence of what I call the caring circle on management. Particularly people commenting one way the other on management after families leave the practice post consultation.
This may include relatives, friends, interested onlookers, chatlines, social media, professionals such as allied health including pharmacists various therapists and their assistants. For some reason everybody seems to have an opinion in this area. More so than other areas of medicine with which I am involved. I think in this day and age there is more of a tendency for people to question and seek as much information as they can.
I am spending more time pre-empting all of this and pointing them towards accurate information, gold standard information such as that found on https://www.nimh.nih.gov which is the website of the National Institutes of mental health in the USA. Generally recognised as the lead organisation in this area.
Local information can be found www.abrolhosgroup.org.au which is being updated regularly with more information.
I explain that there is a lot of fake news out there, a lot of quackery.