The Centre for ADHD Research and Excellence (CARE ADHD) Reviews 

The person assessing me was very polite and patient and did a detailed report, bringing me back on topic when I was going off on my usual accidental tangents. He appeared to have a great understanding of the condition and was clear and concise with me, in a way I found easier to follow and understands.

The only confusion I am left with now, is how to get the medication, which in the report says it will be done privately until the GP agrees a shared care plan, and also my mental health CMHT team was mentioned as having a role to okay in this, however, upon recently attending an appointment with the lead nurse and two other staff, to discuss a reallocation of a new worker, they told me while they had received the report, that they at CMHT absolutely did not and would not be able to supply or have any part in the prescribing and/or supply side for ADHD medication, and told me my best option is my GP, but I’m scared I’ll face similar problems here, so how will I get my medication prescribed and then as guidelines follow, begin titration, sooner rather than later?

Positive and negative, firstly the diagnosis part of the service was great. short wait times, good communication on call and good listening to what ive had to say during diagnosis 6 months ago.

Secondly, ive noticed that under the titration wait times section on the website, there are no wait times listed. I called 2 weeks ago and said its been 6 months since i started and the lady assured me id be seen before august starts.

Come today, and i notice wait times have completely been removed so now i dont know what to expect. Will i still be able to be seen in time before august like promised? im a little sad that with the removal of expected timelines my own timeline has been moved further along when i was looking to be seen in the next week.

ive put in a feedback form in the websites feedback section so hopefully ill have my case feel seen and get a response on whether i'll still be seen before august like previously mentioned

My assesser .i cant remember his name but ill just say
He made me feel relaxed and at ease from start to finish due to his tone and his caring attitude .
Some questions that he had to ask me would have been very difficult to take in and answer but because of his thoughtful caring and engaging personality it made it very easy for me to open up .he is very good at his profession .if all assessors are like him trust me when i say your in good hands 👍🏻

Excellent from start to finish , took two months on the RTC from GP to assment

Great . Received update emails throughout. Nurse was lovely. Experience not stressful at all .

Excellent service throughout. Staff followed up with calls and were super friendly and helpful. The clinician was lovely and made the whole assessment less daunting. Would recommend this service- efficient yet personable and patient focused.

Quick response and outcome

Fast and thorough. Very please

Wait times for titration have been constantly shifting and seven months after diagnosis and submitting my titration request I'm still waiting. There have been several issues with them requiring me to resubmit the same forms, and despite acknowledging the issue in their system I am still waiting for progress on titration. Emailing their complaints team has so far yielded no results, and as of this week their website has changed form "expect a six month wait from submission of titration request" to no time indicators at all.
If you are looking for ADHD diagnosis and titration please look elsewhere. Do not go with CareADHD they will constantly shift time lines, keep on accepting new patients when they are clearly overburdened and overall fail to do what they say they will.

The service was quick, in depth and efficient.

Care ADHD are an amazing group of people. They were so very helpful and kind with my assessment. They helped me and advised me along my journey to my final diagnosis. Very professional and competent company. The time from initial assesment to diagnosis was months, not years. Amazing would very much recommend to any one.

None of the waiting times on their website have been updated since I first registered, & they bear little resemblance to reality. They increase without warning or informing you. Since I started this process, several family members have used other RTC providers for ADHD/Autism assessments & gone from forms to medication in under 3 months. 18 months later, I am still stuck in a rut, struggling to progress, & becoming increasingly sad, anxious & low while waiting for help. I am currently in a “FREEZE” state.

In January 2025, my RTC referral was accepted by CareADHD & I was sent the assessment forms. I chose them because their stated waiting time was 8–12 weeks from form submission to assessment, with titration a few weeks later.

The forms overwhelmed me. It took 6 weeks to psych myself up to begin. The website said they usually take 20 minutes, but to allow 1 hour. 4 hours later, after remembering & reliving painful childhood experiences, I finished, only to find nothing had submitted because the system timed out. I had to start again. This was hugely frustrating & awful for my mental health.

I tried again a few days later & completed them within 90 minutes, but the same thing happened. This is not the right setup for someone with ADHD, as tasks like this already require enormous energy, time & focus.

I emailed CareADHD twice but never received a response. I did not try again because their website states that if you message more than once, your waiting time will be put back. This stopped me seeking further help & left me in limbo.

It took months to psych myself up to try again because I now had negative emotions attached to the forms. I kept reaching around the 1-hour mark before the system timed out. I eventually submitted everything on 21 May 2025.

Around 8 weeks later, at the end of July, I received a call to book my assessment for early October 2025. I would give 5 stars to my lovely, patient & kind assessor. This was my only positive experience with CareADHD.

By then, 10 months had passed from RTC acceptance to assessment, where I was diagnosed with ADHD Combined Type. I sent the forms to proceed with titration & around 5 weeks later was told I was in another processing queue. I received my titration forms by 1 December, so that process took 2 months.

By this point, I had little faith left & had developed real fear around completing more online medical forms, which repeated much of the same information. I finally submitted them on 13 March 2026 after learning about body doubling with another person, something CareADHD could perhaps provide through a weekly online co-working group. I then received an email saying it should only be a few weeks before my titration appointment, which is still what their website states today.

On 16 July 2026, I used the website chat box to ask where I was in the process. I was told it is now 6 months from form submission to the booking call, possibly only a call to arrange the titration appointment. The person I was put through to after the AI was “Natasha”, who showed no empathy & made me feel she wanted to end the chat quickly.

I raised the discrepancy between being told my titration appointment was only weeks away & now being told 6 months. Her response was simply that “the emails are automated.” WELL, CHANGE THEM THEN, PLEASE!! Do not keep people trapped in life-limbo jail.

It is frustrating to read reviews from newer patients who have already been assessed & started medication. I really wish I had chosen another provider because I am genuinely not managing well.

CareADHD – please stop publishing consistently inaccurate waiting times, or stop taking on so many new patients when you cannot manage your existing workload. You are affecting people’s quality of life & mental health. At least be transparent about the waiting times people can expect. Considering you call yourselves “CARE ADHD”, there seems to be a massive lack of care outside the doctor’s appointments.

Please do better

I had a very positive experience with Care ADHD, as it took less than 2 months between sending the request via my GPs Right to Choose and getting my diagnosis.

Overall very positive experience. The assessor was lovely, took the time to listen to me properly, and provided reassurance around the symptoms and experiences I described.
She approached the assessment with kindness, professionalism, and empathy, creating an environment where I felt comfortable being open and honest.

I would like to make a complaint about the excessive time I spent waiting to speak to someone. I was kept on hold for 2 hour and more , as shown in the attached screenshot, without my call being answered.

This is an unreasonable waiting time and has caused significant inconvenience. I would appreciate an explanation for the delay and would like to know what steps will be taken to improve your telephone service so that other customers do not have the same experience.

I’m about 6 months into my journey, and so far I pressed with the professional and organised treatment I’ve received

They may be a little slower than some other providers, however I’m happy to wait a little to ensure I get a proper diagnosis and careful evaluation.

It’s been thorough and I felt that they really listened to me.

**Diagnosed quickly, then effectively abandoned without treatment**

I am hugely underwhelmed by my experience with Care ADHD.

Initially, everything went surprisingly well. My GP referred me in December 2025, and I was contacted shortly afterwards to complete the necessary forms. As someone with ADHD and significant executive-functioning difficulties, the volume of paperwork was overwhelming, although I managed to complete it quickly because I was anxious to progress towards an assessment.

Within a few weeks, I was offered an assessment. The staff I spoke to were helpful, although it was sometimes difficult to get through by telephone. I was assessed on 12 January 2026, diagnosed with combined-type ADHD, and received my report approximately one week later.

After expressing an interest in medication, I was sent further forms relating to titration. These repeated a considerable amount of information I had already provided. Care ADHD is dealing with people who, by the very nature of their condition, may struggle with organisation, task initiation, memory and completing lengthy administrative processes. The paperwork should be simplified and streamlined rather than unnecessarily duplicated.

I completed and returned the titration forms and was told, as many other patients appear to have been told, that I could expect a titration appointment within approximately 12 weeks. I was later advised that I should receive an appointment around June or July.

It is now 17 July 2026, more than six months after my diagnosis, and I am still waiting.

Being diagnosed quickly may look impressive, but a diagnosis without access to timely treatment or meaningful follow-up is not an adequate service. Care ADHD cannot continue diagnosing people and then leaving them for months without treatment, support or any reliable indication of when help will actually become available. The expected timescales appear to keep changing, while patients are left to spend hours chasing updates.

Unfortunately, my experience with Care ADHD’s under-18 service has also been deeply concerning.

My daughter was referred by her GP in December 2025 and was initially on the pathway with another Right to Choose provider. After speaking with Care ADHD, we were advised that its under-18 service had recently launched and that waiting times were relatively short. On the basis of that information, we made the significant decision to leave the original provider and obtain a new referral to Care ADHD.

Her forms were issued relatively quickly and have now been completed, including the information required from her school. However, we are still waiting for a meaningful response regarding her assessment.

As I write this review, I have been on hold to the Care ADHD under-18 team for one hour and 52 minutes. I have already submitted an enquiry through the website and have received no useful response. This level of accessibility is completely unacceptable, particularly for a service supporting neurodivergent children, adults and families who may already be struggling considerably.

ADHD is not simply an inconvenience. For many people, it affects education, employment, relationships, emotional regulation, mental health and their ability to manage everyday life. Leaving people in limbo after diagnosis, with no treatment and no reliable communication, can have serious consequences.

I appreciate that Care ADHD states that it is recruiting additional practitioners and developing its service, but the current system is plainly not coping with demand. It is not enough to continue accepting referrals and conducting assessments if there is insufficient capacity to provide the treatment and follow-up patients have been led to expect.

The most distressing part is the complete lack of clarity. Patients are repeatedly given estimated timescales, only for those timescales to pass or be extended without proper explanation. An enormous amount of time and emotional energy is then spent trying to discover what is happening.

If a patient attended hospital with a broken arm, they would not reasonably expect to be diagnosed and then left for six months without treatment. Yet that is effectively how this process feels: diagnosed, placed on another waiting list, and left to chase a service that is extraordinarily difficult to contact.

My experience began positively, but the care following diagnosis has been profoundly disappointing. Care ADHD urgently needs to improve its communication, telephone accessibility, administrative processes and, most importantly, its capacity to provide timely treatment after diagnosis.

Diagnosed months ago and still left without treatment

I was diagnosed with ADHD in mid-January and was told that the wait to begin medication would be up to 12 weeks. That already felt like a long time, but I accepted it and waited patiently.

Care ADHD are more than happy to continue the churn of NHS patients and thus cash. They blame a backlog whilst well aware of how many patients, I wonder if a stop on taking new patients on has occurred? I doubt it, as nobody gets paid then! Telling.

It is now mid-July, approximately six months after my diagnosis, and I still have not started medication. Earlier this month, I was finally asked to provide a baseline ECG, which I completed and returned promptly. Since then, I have received complete radio silence.

The original 12-week timeframe passed months ago. I have been patient, avoided leaving a negative review and only sent limited chasers, but there comes a point where this level of delay and communication becomes unacceptable. ADHD significantly affects my ability to manage everyday life. Leaving patients without treatment or meaningful updates for this length of time has real life consequences.

What makes the experience worse is the lack of personal communication and ownership. I do not want another generic or AI-generated response apologising for the delay. I want an actual person to review my case, explain why I have been waiting for approximately six months, confirm EXACTLY where I am in the process and provide a realistic date for treatment to begin. If I even had the sniff of a timeframe, I could deal with it better.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Care ADHD. The delays have gone far beyond the timeframe I was originally given, and the communication throughout the process has been extremely poor.

They were brilliant from start to finish really happy with the service they have provided

Over all the experience was really good and very quick to get my diagnosis, the only bad bit was I never revived my paper copy of my diagnosis and as I don’t have a printer and only have a phone I can’t read the report