ADHD treatment coordination

Almost all providers were equally likely to help "a lot" with treatment coordination. But pediatricians (often the sole treatment providers and prescribers of medication) were cited by parents as not helping at all 32 percent of the time. Since 58 percent of the children had visited more than one provider in the last 12 months, there appears to be a gap in treatment coordination.

Tips for being your child's treatment coordinator

Here are steps you can take to coordinate your child's care:

• Obtain copies of any medical, psychological, and testing records related to your child's ADHD condition. Treat these records as you would vaccination records. The more information you can provide to new treatment providers, the better. (Always offer copies of your records and save your originals or original copies.)
• If this is the first time you are enlisting professional help for your child's condition, request a baseline measure of his or her behavior and functioning. This serves three purposes:

1. It provides an objective indication of your child's diagnosis (such as test results, questionnaire responses, written reports) that you can later bring to schools (even at the graduate level) or other places as proof of diagnosis.
2. It lets professionals know that tests have been done, saving you time and money.
3. It helps you and/or treatment providers monitor your child's progress from the beginning of treatment.

• Maintain a list of all treatment providers who work with your child, including street address, e-mail address, phone numbers, and start dates of treatment.
• Maintain a list of strategies tried, when they were started, and what changes or side effects resulted.
• Explore an ADHD treatment center if you are unable to take on the role as coordinator of treatment. Several interdisciplinary professionals provide care as a team at these centers.