High fees, long public waiting lists leave parents spending thousands on ADHD treatment for kids
Cameron Petricevich with his wife and three children. He estimates they have spent $60,000 on treatments for ADHD and autism over the past five years. (Supplied: Cameron Petricevich)
In short:
Cameron Petricevich has three children who are neurodivergent, and he estimates that, over the past five years, he and his wife have spent $60,000 on diagnosis and treatment.
He says it is a huge impost and he worries about families who cannot afford treatment for their children.
What's next?
GPs are advocating for a pilot program that will allow for ADHD diagnosis and treatment within general practice to lower costs and decrease waiting times.
Cameron Petricevich has three children who are neurodivergent, and he estimates that, over the past five years, he and his wife have spent $60,000 getting them the medication and support they need.
His two younger sons both have ADHD diagnoses, and one also has an autism diagnosis, and he's in the process of seeking a diagnosis for his eldest daughter for ADHD, something he describes as a "near impossible task".
The family lives in Albany, on WA's south coast, and while they initially sought help through the public system, long waiting times and the urging of their son's teachers led them to seek private telehealth treatment from a Perth-based paediatrician.
"There's a lot of pressure from schools," Mr Petricevich told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth.
"I know from our experience with our middle son, there was a lot of push in kindy to get a diagnosis and we were on the public waiting list, and they were long, and the pressure became too much," he said.
"So, we had to go down the private route through pressure from the school to get a diagnosis and get started."
Hundreds of dollars per appointment
Four years ago, the initial paediatrician appointment for his son cost $900 with only a fraction covered by Medicare.
Now Mr Petricevich has been told an initial appointment and diagnosis for his daughter will cost $1,600.
Regular appointments for medication reviews for each of his sons cost $525 per visit.
"We did some back-of-envelope calculations and we're in the vicinity of $60,000 in the past four to five years, including treatments through paediatricians, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, and medication," he said.
Mr Petricevich said it had put a huge strain on the family finances.
"My wife works full time and I work in excess of 60, 70 hours a week on the road driving trucks to make it happen," he said.
"We don't have a choice; we just have to make it happen."
Mr Petricevich said he was speaking out because while he and his wife had found the money, for many it was simply unaffordable.
"It's really concerning that for those families that can't, those kids are missing out and we're seeing it a lot," he said.
"My wife works in education; she sees it every day."
Mr Petricevich said he had written to Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and met with his local state MP, Rebecca Stephens, about the issue.
"She was pretty good," he said.
"We discussed some ideas about how it could improve, but the general sense was: we don't have answers for you at the moment and we don't have concrete plans as to how we can make it better."
'Patients are struggling'
Perth GP Tim Leahy, who has two sons with ADHD, has also been investigating the issue of costs around treatment for diagnosis and ongoing treatment.
"We pride ourselves on having a quality health system in Australia, aiming for patient-centred care," Dr Leahy said.
"But if it's not affordable, if you can't access care in the first place, then it's really not the health system you think it is."
Dr Tim Leahy, Perth GP, speaking at a ABC Radio Perth spotlight forum on ADHD. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)
Dr Leahy said while doctors trained for years to become specialists, they also had a responsibility to the community.
"I know some people say it's supply and demand, but we do know that price gouging does happen when there are monopolies," he said.
"I think we've got to remember, as a profession, we have a fiduciary role. We're in a role of trust.
"We've had our education subsidised heavily right through our primary, secondary, and tertiary education, through medical education and beyond.
"We've got a guaranteed income, and we have an obligation to our patients to make our care affordable and to listen to our patients when they're struggling."
Dr Leahy said if people were unable to get treatment for conditions like ADHD, there was a huge flow-on cost to the economy at large.
"I really do worry about patients missing out because a kid in year 9 with ADHD is on average five years behind.
"They're sitting in the year 9 class, but educationally, they're five years behind their peers, and that's a huge cost."
Using GPs for ADHD care mooted
Dr Leahy is behind a proposal to train GPs to be more involved in diagnosis and treatment for ADHD, which he hoped would lower costs and shorten waiting times.
"The project is about interested GPs being upskilled with brief training, then ongoing training, and with supervision from interested specialists, paediatricians, and psychiatrists to do more of the care," he said.
"[GPs could be] doing more of the work-up, discussing the diagnosis, helping to start the treatment, and continuing the ongoing treatment."
Cameron Petricevich and his family hiking near Albany. (Supplied)
Dr Leahy hoped to interest the state government in a pilot project using GPs that could then be evaluated.
"We know we've got interested specialists, paediatricians, and psychiatrists," Dr Leahy said.
"We've now got national clinical guidelines, and we've now got prescribing guidelines as well, so we've never been better placed to do something like this."
It was an idea that Cameron Petricevich would welcome.
"Obviously your groceries are out of control as well at the moment, but this is something that's cost us $60,000 over the past four or five years," he said.
"That's a lot of money we could do other things with."