ACRRM has chimed in on how new ADHD reforms will benefit rural patients.
Rural health bodies are backing the latest wave of ADHD treatment reforms, highlighting their potential to improve access to care.
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) has commended recent state initiatives to expand the role of GPs and rural generalists in assessing and treating ADHD.
Continuity of care has been a focal point for the campaigning of GPs in ADHD care with rural health pushing this even more so.
“People in rural and remote Australia still face the longest delays and highest costs for ADHD assessment and care, with specialist services often hours away and out of reach,” ACRRM president Dr Rod Martin said.
“RGs live and work in these communities and are best placed to provide timely, ongoing ADHD care close to home.
“For these reforms to deliver the best outcomes, they must be supported by continued investment in training and workforce development.”
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has raised concerns over training requirements, noting that Queensland does not yet mandate additional training for ADHD diagnosis.
“Our only concern is that there is no training being required, as is happening in South Australia and WA in Queensland,” RANZCP Queensland Branch Chair Professor Brett Emmerson told The Medical Republic.
“We’re calling on the government to have a rethink about not taking back the ability to diagnose and treat but ensuring that there is a system in place.
“We’re just really calling on the government to ensure that if they’re introducing this, which they are, they really need to fund an education package for GPs to acquire the required skills.
“It’s not like there aren’t training programmes out there, it’s not like we’re going to have to develop one.
“There are off the shelf ones that are totally applicable and organisations that are able to do it.”
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ACRRM acknowledged this widely held view but expressed concern that training timelines may lag behind patient access needs.
“As long as the training that they’re proposing doesn’t take a long period of time,” Dr Martin told TMR.
“GPs and RGs haven’t had lots of experience in diagnosing, and certainly the ongoing management for ADHD and I think a reasonable amount of familiarisation, certainly for continuation of those medications, is important and even more important for making the diagnosis.
“We can make sense of plenty of patients that have got ADHD, but they’re usually the simple ones.
“It’s the more complicated ones that we don’t want to miss, we don’t want to deny treatment, and we want to make sure that the decisions that we’re making and the treatment choices that we’re making are the correct ones.”
