No. Only a medical doctor (psychiatrist or paediatrician) can prescribe medication for ADHD. If appropriate, you will receive a diagnosis of ADHD at the end of the psychologist assessment however further medical valuation is required before getting access to a prescription for medication. This further assessment varies depending on your age. For individuals under the age of 16, Paediatricians often value multi-disciplinary input into assessments so you can share the comprehensive assessment report created by the psychologist and they may then be able to prescribe the medication after appropriate medical testing. For individuals 16 and over, you will need to see a psychiatrist who will often want to complete their own comprehensive assessment before providing a diagnosis and prescription for medication. While you may provide a copy of the report created by a psychologist, we have found that psychiatrists will request to complete a full assessment again so this may then involve a double up in your time and money. For this reason, if you are over the age of 16 and think you may be interested in medication, we recommend that you book in with your GP to get a referral to see a psychiatrist, rather than having an assessment by a psychologist.

Initial assessment sessions are conducted via telehealth and are scheduled on a specific Saturday late in the school term. Assessments are then booked for the school holiday period and will be over 1 to 2 sessions within this two week time frame. These are typically in-person, however certain sessions may be conducted via telehealth if this works best for you (excluding cognitive or observational assessment sessions). A feedback session will then occur early in the school term. These are typically scheduled within four to six weeks of the final assessment session to allow for the report to be finalised. For urgent assessments, or where there is availability, there may be limited appointments available during the school term. In terms of waiting times, there is flexibility in the number of assessments that can be completed during each school holiday period therefore we are likely to be able to conduct the assessment in a reasonable time frame. For this reason, the waiting time is likely to be the period of time between your inquiry and the end of the school term. If we do not have capacity to offer the assessment in the next school holiday period we will let you know this, and offer to place you on a waiting list as a priority for the next available slot. By being on the waiting list, you will also be notified should there be a cancellation.

Each assessment is tailored to the individual and depends on factors such as the purpose of the assessment, the age of the individual and personal circumstances. Packages are therefore not available at this time, and assessment fees are instead charged at an hourly rate. An estimated cost for each type of assessment is included in the section above labelled Assessment Fees. These costs are estimates only but are all inclusive (i.e. initial assessment session, report writing and feedback session).

Unfortunately Medicare rebates are not available for psychological assessments. There are some rebates available for Autism Assessments for individuals under 25 years old. These require a specific referral from a Paediatrician or Psychiatrist, please see the following Services Australia page for more information. If you have Private Health insurance, it may be worth contacting your provider to see if you are eligible for any rebates for psychological assessments.

This depends on a variety of factors such as your plan type and specific goals. It would be best to discuss this option with your support coordinator or plan manager. If you are able to use your NDIS funds to pay for the assessment, we would ask you to either seek pre-approval from the plan manager, or to seek reimbursement after the assessment. Please note that we are not a NDIS registered provider so are only able to provide services to those who are plan- or self-managed.

Where you have scheduled an initial assessment appointment, we ask that you provide 5 days notice of a cancellation to ensure that we can offer the slot to another person. Where this notice is not provided, a $50 administrative fee will apply. If less than 48 hours notice is provided, the full session fee will apply. For the other assessment sessions, we ask that you provide 48 hours notice of a cancellation. Without this notice, a $100 administrative fee will apply.

While there are currently a limited number of assessments available at Melbourne Psychology and Counselling, we do plan to expand this in the near future so please let us know what you need, and we may be able to place you on a waiting list for this assessment as soon as it becomes available. You are also welcome to have an initial assessment session with the psychologist to discuss which assessments may be most helpful to your needs, and suggestions on other places where they can be conducted.

The Program for Students with Disabilities is a funding program within the Department of Education that allocates additional funding to students who fit into specific categories. In order for a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder to receive funding through this model, they require a diagnosis from a Paediatrician, Speech Pathologist and Psychologist. For many students, they may have completed a comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessment with a Paediatrician and a Speech pathologist (and potentially other allied health professionals) however they are not eligible for funding until they receive the diagnosis from a Psychologist. At Melbourne Psychology and Counselling, we are able to offer a more affordable option for families who require this additional diagnosis to support the funding application. In order to access this assessment service, the student must have a comprehensive diagnostic report from a Paediatrician and Speech Pathologist, with confirmed eligibility under the Adaptive Behaviour and Speech and Language components. Prior to booking this assessment, a complementary 15 minute phone call will be offered to ensure that all the required paperwork is available. This can be conducted with the family, or with a referring school staff member where appropriate (with the family’s consent). Please note, an ADOS and/or ADI-R assessment is not available through Melbourne Psychology and Counselling therefore a comprehensive Autism assessment is not available. The assessment is limited to providing a concurring statement for the purposes of PSD-ASD funding, where a comprehensive assessment has already been conducted.