Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘New or novel ways’ needed to diagnose ADHD and autism amid lockdown

Dr Lynne Taylor
Dr Lynne Taylor

NHS Grampian will be exploring new ways of diagnosing conditions such as ADHD and autism as lockdown progresses.

Dr Lynne Taylor, the clinical director of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Grampian, this week took part in a Facebook Live event to discuss the effect of lockdown.

Staff are, armed with laptops and headsets, doing their best to reach as many vulnerable young people and children as possible.

Dr Taylor, who has four children, described headsets as “a doctor’s new stethoscope.”

She added: “Going forward with Covid-19, technology is something we all will have to get used to.

“We don’t want people to feel abandoned, and are lucky in CAMHS that staff have the IT to offer appointments through a software called NearMe.”

She added: “Some things a bit trickier of us –like the assessment of things like autism and ADHD as we very much rely on the school to give us reports or we do school observations.

“So we having to think in new or novel ways about how to gather that sort of information”

While there’s been an uptake of young people making use of online appointments, there has also been a decrease in referrals to the service.

Re-iterating calls from various cancer and health charities, she has reminded the population that GPs are still open for people struggling with mental health.

Stormy days make way for sun

Dr Taylor also reminded people that unwelcome emotions “will pass.”

She said: “The main message we want to want to get across to people is that it is totally understandable to have unusual emotions at the moment, because we are in an unusual situation.

“There is the worry that lots of children and young people will have mental health problems after this, and parents might be worried about that too.

“Lots of people want straight answers now on when things will go back to normal, but normal will be quite different in future so adaptability is one of the things we trying to encourage.”

The CAHMS service has also been getting feedback that for many families it is not a time of distress, but one for quality time together.

Dr Lynne Taylor. Picture by Darrell Benns

Dr Taylor suggests that people establish routines to make their day go faster, and allow time to get caught up in a good book or lost in a jigsaw to break-up the day.

Dr Taylor suggested a number of websites children, young people, and their parents might find useful.

They include www.camhs-resources.co.uk/coronavirus and www.youngscot.org.

Click here to listen to the NHS Grampian “Keep CAMHS and Carry On” podcast on Spotify.