Your GP already knows you. That’s the point.

Australia has spent the last twelve months opening the door for GPs to assess and treat adult ADHD. Queensland went first in December 2025. NSW launched Stage 2 training in March 2026. South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and the ACT are all running GP training programs right now.

This is the biggest shift in ADHD care in a generation. And the logic behind it is simple.

The person best placed to assess your ADHD is the doctor who already knows you.

Quick links

• The waiting room problem
• MyMedicare and the relationship that matters
• The conference circuit
• What the research says about GP-led assessment
• The GP advantage
• Who the reform is for
• The inclusive model

The waiting room problem

Before the reforms, an adult who suspected they had ADHD needed a psychiatrist. In most of Australia, that meant a waitlist of six to eighteen months. In regional areas, it often meant a three-hour drive to the nearest one.

Meanwhile, their GP, the doctor who had been managing their anxiety, reviewing their sleep, adjusting their antidepressants, seeing them twice a year for a decade, was not authorised to assess or prescribe.

The system sent patients away from the clinician who knew them best. Toward a specialist who had never met them. For a condition that shows up most clearly in the patterns of someone’s everyday life.

MyMedicare and the relationship that matters

The Australian Government introduced MyMedicare in 2023. It is a voluntary registration model that formally links patients to their regular GP and practice.

The philosophy is straightforward. Continuity of care produces better outcomes. A GP who knows your history, your family, your medication list, and your patterns will make better clinical decisions than a doctor seeing you for the first time.

By March 2025, roughly 2.6 million Australians had registered. Around 80% of GP practices had signed up. From 1 July 2025, chronic condition management plans are tied to the registered practice. The policy direction is clear. Australia is investing in the GP relationship as the foundation of primary care.

ADHD reform follows the same logic. The GP who has been seeing a patient for years, who noticed the pattern of missed appointments, the anxiety that never quite responded to SSRIs, the scattered history that always felt like something else was going on, that GP has more diagnostic signal than a specialist meeting the patient for a one-off assessment.

The conference circuit

There is a well-worn path in Australian medicine. A new area of clinical practice opens up. Conferences are organised. Training programs are announced. Accreditation bodies create new tiers. Within a few years, a small group of credentialed specialists dominates the conversation.

This pattern produces expertise. It also produces bottlenecks.

ADHD affects at least 800,000 Australians. Annual prescriptions doubled from 1.4 million to 3.1 million between 2020 and 2023. The specialist workforce did not double. It was never going to.

The AADPA conference in Melbourne this July will have excellent clinical content. The RACGP GP26 in Adelaide in November will cover the reforms in depth. These events matter. But they serve hundreds of clinicians. The reform needs to reach tens of thousands.

The GP who did not attend the conference, who did not complete an optional ADHD micro-credential, who has no particular interest in becoming an ADHD specialist, but who has a patient sitting in front of them asking for help. That GP is the one the reform was designed for.

What the research says about GP-led assessment

The AADPA guideline, approved by the NHMRC and endorsed by the RACGP, supports GP-led assessment with appropriate tools and training. The ASRS-5 screening tool has 90% sensitivity and 88% specificity in primary care settings. The DIVA 2.0 diagnostic interview achieves close to 100% diagnostic accuracy in some studies.

These are not specialist-grade instruments repurposed for general practice. They were designed for general practice.

NSW trained over 800 GPs in Stage 1 (continuation prescribing) in under six months. More than 18,000 scripts were filled under the new arrangement. Stage 2 (diagnosis and initiation) launched this month. South Australia modelled its shared care framework on the obstetric shared care program that GPs have used for decades.

The infrastructure exists. The tools exist. The evidence supports it.

The GP advantage

A psychiatrist conducting an ADHD assessment meets the patient once, sometimes twice. They rely on self-reported history, a rating scale, and whatever referral letter the GP sent.

A GP conducting the same assessment has years of clinical context. They know the patient asked about concentration problems three years ago and was prescribed sertraline. They know the patient’s mother mentioned forgetfulness at a family health check. They know the patient has been on a mental health treatment plan that helped with mood but did nothing for focus.

This is not a compromise. This is a clinical advantage. Learn how to structure this preparation in our guide: How to prepare for an ADHD assessment.

The collateral history, the longitudinal view, the relationship with the family. These are the elements that make a strong ADHD assessment. They are the elements a specialist does not have.

Who the reform is for

The reform is not for a new class of ADHD-specialist GPs who attend conferences and collect credentials. It is for the 30,000 GPs already practising in Australia. The ones registered on MyMedicare. The ones managing chronic conditions, mental health plans, and preventive care every day.

It is for the GP in Agnes Water whose nearest psychiatrist is in Bundaberg, ninety minutes each way. It is for the GP in Western Sydney whose ADHD waitlist referrals come back stamped “12 months.” It is for the GP in suburban Melbourne who has three patients this week asking about ADHD and no clear pathway to help them.

These GPs do not need to become specialists. They need structured tools that make assessment straightforward. See our FAQ for how Velluto helps. Pre-appointment questionnaires collected before the patient arrives. Observer reports gathered independently. Validated scales scored and summarised. A clinical picture assembled and ready for review.

The consultation then becomes what it should be. A conversation between a doctor and a patient who already know each other.

The inclusive model

There are two ways to build clinical capability. One is to create a credentialed inner circle and require everyone to pass through it. The other is to give every qualified clinician the tools and information they need to do the work.

The first model protects quality. It also creates the bottleneck that 800,000 Australians are stuck behind right now.

The second model scales. It meets patients where they are. In their regular GP’s practice. With a doctor who knows their name.

MyMedicare formalised the relationship. The ADHD reforms gave it clinical scope. The missing piece is workflow. The practical infrastructure that turns a willing GP into a prepared one.

Velluto automates the pre-appointment workflow for ADHD assessments. Screening questionnaires, observer reports, document collection, and structured clinical summaries, all completed before the patient arrives. The GP reviews the assembled picture and conducts the consultation. Watch the full workflow or use the ROI calculator to see what this adds to your practice.

No special accreditation required. No conference attendance necessary. If you are a GP and your patient needs an ADHD assessment, you belong in this conversation. Read more: Five strategies for scaling your GP practice. Or learn who built Velluto and why.