Seeking help in Toronto

[Lucky77]

Tea: The city I live in has a learning centre that has an “attention clinic” that will fully assess and diagnose (over a period of visits and info gathering). There was a fee, however if you have insurance through an employer, you may get covered. They recommend treatment and will send their findings and recommendations to your doctor, so they can monitor if medication is the direction you wish to take. Staffed with psycologists and psychiatrists, i felt my assessment was handled carefully yet swiftly.

How did I find out about this place? I called my provincial health services line and spoke to someone who laid out the options I could take.

They also mentioned that the university here will assess and diagnose, however have heard that there is long waiting lists and it may take longer since you are there so the students can learn. I didnt want to muck around with all that. No patience! Lol

REPORT ABUSE

[Lucky77]

Oh, I should also add that my dr didnt know that this learning centre existed and was able to diagnose. He said a referral thru him may take year through our health system. I dont blame him at all as he has been very supportive and open to treating me, even before I was diagnosed.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Beebster, the best thing I can suggest is for you to call Dr B’s office in Barrie. The secretary there is very good, she will spend a lot of time explaining the process to you and even send the referral forms to your family physician.

I paid for the testing only, that was a 65 pg questionnaire and computer test. Everything else was covered by OHIP (which means three office visits where I met with Dr B for about an hour each time).

Dr B is a psychiatrist, not a psychologist.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I honestly think many of those places over emphasize the process of diagnosis and testing and that they charge so much for the testing at best is a fairly glaring conflict of interest.

I would also not recommend trying to get medication from a GP, just get a referral. They are powerful meds and the GP is not going to have anything close to the experience and knowledge that a specialist will have about them.

Especially if you answered every question affirmative on the self test it’s probably not a question of if you have ADHD but more of having a good doctor to get though the process of getting on a medication and dose that works well for your circumstances.

I didn’t see this place mentioned and I highly recommend it. The doctor that deals with Adult ADHD there is Neurologist and he’s very good and it’s right downtown near Young and Bloor. http://www.startclinic.ca

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

If you have a very judgemental doctor as I do, it’s necessary to seek out a professional diagnosis. I don’t see any conflict of interest with charging for services. It’s our choice whether or not to seek these people out. There’s nothing wrong with charging for services or making a living as a professional. The site you mentioned also charges for services that some people think should be free, like meditation training.

REPORT ABUSE

[beebster]

no_dopamine

i think i will do that

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

It’s not a question of charging for services, but if the doctor who is recommending the service also has a financial interest in the facility doing the testing then there is a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest does not necessarily entail ill intent or even poor advice but it’s important to be aware of when selecting a doctor.

The ADHD doc at startclinic does not charge anything over and above OHIP and went to great lengths to work around my extremely poor financial situation two years ago when I first decided to seek treatment.

For Derrin from the first post who can’t pay $1200 and who sounds like a fairly clear cut case having answered every question on the self test in the affirmative, I’d find it hard to imagine a better option in Toronto.

In any case, when was doing my research before seeking treatment I called every number on this list (some are outdated): http://www.adrn.org/html/adult_adhd.html and I found a lot of useful information by doing so.

REPORT ABUSE

[Grainy]

Hi beebster:

The ADD Center (Mississauga) is NOT the place I went. This Mississauga place seems to be run by a psychologist (who, of course, cannot prescribe meds).

The place I went to: The ADHD Clinic (Toronto, Davisville subway neighbourhood — http://www.theadhdclinic.ca/

I also heard Dr. Bilkey is good…. but Barrie is not convenient for everyone.

I was pleased with the process and thoroughness at The ADHD Clinic. The price seems to be cheaper than some other places, too. When I described the assessment (2 long appts, many questionnaires, thorough interviews, etc.) to my GP, he seemed to trust it. If Dr. Turgay were alive, he would have referred me to him, and it was Dr. Turgay who used to run this clinic.

Hope this helps.

REPORT ABUSE

[Grainy]

PS, I just read lurknessmonster’s entry.

About conflict of interest: I felt The ADHD Clinic was straight, because the doctor only charged OHIP for his services. The $875 was for the psychometrist and psychologist (don’t forget, it’s not just the 4 or so hrs that I saw these people in total… they also had to spend some time scoring and writing reports). And they didn’t try to sell me any other services — such as coaching — when the diagnosis was delivered to me. The Dr. said he would suggest therapy and/or coaching to compliment the meds, but he suggested the CADDAC web site as a place to start my search. So, he wasn’t in cahoots with anyone, nor was he trying to get me to come back to his clinic and spend some more money.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Wow, with all this testy language you really need to be careful what you unintentially imply about other doctors! 😯

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Yeah money and medicine is a touchy subject.

I just think that the money thing will be a huge deterrent for many people thinking of seeking treatment and that since some doctors don’t charge, some charge a fee in addition to their ohip for each visit and some clinics charge and require advanced testing to receive a diagnosis it’s something you really need to ask yourself if you need.

It’s also really important for people (esp. broke people) to understand that (In Canada thankfully) you can get a diagnosis from a specialist in Adult ADHD without having to pay. Once you get a prescription there are also some options for getting the cost of certain drugs subsidized if you qualify under the drug companies compassion program and perhaps other ways.

REPORT ABUSE

[Grainy]

Well, in Ontario at least, it’s not easy for an ADULT to get free testing. I’m employed, but like most of us with kids (in university $$$), don’t have a slush fund just waiting for me to use. But I decided to save up, not go out much, etc. The ADHD Clinic is one of the cheaper ones. And as I’ve said, they don’t seem to do any unnecessary tests. There are places that will charge $2500-$5000, but they do tons of other psycho-educational testing… probably not necessary. I coughed up the $1K (including tax), got the diagnosis (important, ’cause what if you have a co-morbidity, or it’s not ADHD?) and got rolling with the rest of my life.

For those of you who lack the money, perhaps the dr. would be open to a payment plan. Or … Xmas is coming up. Tell your inner circle that you’d really appreciate $ (no gift cards, unless H&M will test you!). And maybe a few friends will advance you the rest. What a great Xmas present to yourself–a calmed-down brain.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

We all need to remember that NO tests need to be done to diagnose ADD. Filling out forms and rating scales is not testing. I know there are places out there that promote ‘testing’ done on computers but those tests are not diagnosing ADD. A good doctor can give the diagnosis without any of the $$$$ (costly) testing that some of these places are promoting.

If you are actually ADD, you probably already know that you jump the gun when responding, miss important details, and on and on… That kind of testing ‘may’, just ‘may’ be helpful in a few cases but I think it is primarily just add-on selling done to add some income to bottom lines of self-employed people. (Yes, docs!)

I have nothing against doctors. In fact, a number of personal friends are MDs. We tend to forget the fact that they are business people as well as medical workers. Doctors are self-employed, running a business, paying rent and salaries to RNs, receptionists, and even cleaning staff. They have bills to pay too, even if the government (Ontario or any other province here) is the one ‘paying’ their salary. If they can upsell a service to us, why not?

Being a doctor doesn’t exclude them from the “I want to retire poor” club. I work in special ed and I’ve never had a single parent tell me that they had to have all specialized testing done before their doctor (psychiatrists, pediatricians, and even family MDs make a diagnosis).

The self-checklists for adults are quite accurate IF there are no other co-morbidities involved. The MD (whatever his speciality or even if he is a plain old vanilla MD) can use a checklist that is only slightly longer. Some of the name-brand ratings scales can only be used by the doctor if he has purchased copies of it from the owner/publisher of the checklists. Then the doctor may add some cost to you for having used the name-brand checklists.

However, there are loads of generic checklists available for use by doctors and think that the CADDRA site may have some available for use by physians.

Remember, most doctors are on the patients’ sides. There are probably exceptions to that rule just like every other profession and job out there.

REPORT ABUSE

[Grainy]

@ zsazsa — Important, though, to also identify any co-morbidities and to see whether it’s “just” those other conditions or only ADHD.

@ beebster — I just found out today that The ADHD Clinic recently stopped seeing adults. What a shame! I was seen this summer, so I must have been one of the last adults to be accepted. Sorry.

REPORT ABUSE

[Grainy]

PS. According to their receptionist The ADHD Clinic does accept people up to age 22.

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts