Why choose Animo Health?
Only virtual appointments are offered, allowing access without geographical barriers.
Better choice of when to be seen
Access to a Consultant Psychiatrist
The option to have treatment which may not be available on the NHS due to long waiting times and NHS service limitations.
Generic psychiatric assessment £550
A generic psychiatric assessment consists of a 90 minutes appointment when a Dr Ronzoni will explore all aspects of the child or young person's mental health, with emphasis of those symptoms that are causing the most problems. At the end, Dr Ronzoni will discuss his view on whether there are any diagnosable mental health problems and what the treatment approaches could be.
This assessment is not recommended if you wish to explore whether your child has ADHD or ASD, instead discussed with Dr Ronzoni your concerns.
Autism (ASD) assessment £2,000
For children 6 years old and above
The assessment of ASD requires the use of two semi-structured assessment. The ADI-R (The Autism Diagnostic interview-Revised) gathers historical and developmental information about the child from parents. Dr Ronzoni will carry this out virtually and in the same session he will see your child for a Psychiatric assessment. A second assessment, the ADOS-2 (The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition) will be carried out face to face with wither a Clinical Psychologist or a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. Dr Ronzoni will then offer a virtual session to provide feedback of the assessment.
Please note that for the ADOS-2, you will be required to travel to either London.
ADHD assessment £700
For children 6 years old and above
The assessment of ADHD involves a psychiatric assessment with the child or young person, developmental information gathered from parents, the use of screening questionnaires and additional observations highlighted by school. The assessment of ADHD also includes the use of the most unbiased computer-based tool (QbCheck), which has transformed the assessment by allowing accurate measure of the core elements of ADHD. Dr Ronzoni is generally able to reach a diagnostic conclusion in one or two appointments depending on whether there are additional difficulties. The evidence about the QbCheck (Test) is mounting and NICE has recently published the rationale of why it is a good resource to be included in ADHD assessments.
Dr Ronzoni is now also using the Creyos Neurocognitive Testing in addition to the QbCheck. The Creyos protocol combines five tasks that are useful in the context of ADHD, including a working memory task, a response inhibition task, an attention-based task, a planning task, and a sustained attention to response task. Both, QbCheck and Creyos combined improved the diagnostic accuracy significantly and provide very valuable information on a child's learning strengths and weaknesses.
When this service is chosen by parents, the child or young person will be able to do the QbCheck and Creyos Tests at home so the results are ready for the virtual session with Dr Ronzoni
IMPORTANT - For treatment of ADHD, Dr Ronzoni will only be able to prescribe providing that the GP will be willing to enter into a Shared Care Agreement. A Shared Care Agreement is an agreement between you, your child's GP, and Dr Ronzoni (the Specialist Consultant) which enables the care and treatment your child receives for ADHD to be shared between the Dr Ronzoni and the GP. It ensures monthly prescriptions are organised by the GP while the overall monitoring of the treatment and dose adjustments remain under Dr Ronzoni's responsibility. This will only occur when your child is stable on a given ADHD medication and dose. If the GP refuses to enter into a Shared Care Agreement, Dr Ronzoni will not be able to provide scripts in the longer term and therefore, it is recommended that you check with your child's GP before agreeing to an assessment, if you are considering treatment of ADHD in case this is diagnosed.
QbCheck for ADHD £250
For children 6 years old and above
The use of a QbCheck and Creyos Testing provides objective measurement of the core features of ADHD. While these are not designed to be diagnostic tools in themselves, they are considered robust aids to the diagnosis when considering the clinical picture and other developmental information. At Animo Health, the QbCheck and Creyos Tests are included in every assessment of ADHD but we will be happy to provide these tests as a standalone tools to complement an on-going assessment done somewhere else, where parents feel the child's difficulties are not being understood in their entirety, or when the child's presentation is very different at home and school.
Combined Neurodevelopmental assessment £2,600
For children 6 years old and above
This assessment is appropriate for those children in whom school and parents have concerns about a variety of challenges, including difficulties in focusing and concentrating, hyperactivity and impulsivity; as well as long standing difficulties in making and/or sustaining friendships, repetitive behaviours and problems with imaginative play and social communication.
This combined assessment will involve completing the QbCheck at home, a face to face session in either London or Herefordshire for the ADOS-2, and two virtual sessions with Dr Ronzoni, one for the ADI-R and the Psychiatric Assessment and one for feedback at the end of the assessment.
Routine follow ups;
-
30 minutes £130
-
50 minutes £225
Once the assessment for either for ADHD is completed, if medical treatment is recommended, the use of mediation can be discussed in a separate session, which incur the above fees (generally a 30 minutes session is sufficient, or a 50 minutes session is used to review siblings together when both are on medication ). Medication will require on-going monitoring and the frequently of these reviews depends on the case and how children or young people respond the the medication.
Attendance to multiagency meetings £150 per hour
In most cases where difficulties are complex, a multiagency approach involving mental health services, education and Social Care is needed. In these cases, during important multiagency meetings can be attended by Dr Ronzoni should parents feel his input will be beneficial to the overall care of the child.
Consultation sessions can also be used if parents do not know whether we can help and they would like an instance to discuss their concerns.
What should you consider before making a decision?
The cost - We do not accept Insured patients. Therefore, it is important to consider not just the cost of the initial assessment but also the on-going cost of the treatment (if this is applicable). We will discuss this with you in a clear manner so you can make an informed choice.
Whether virtual appointments are for you and acceptable to your child or young person.
Your care and treatment with the NHS - If you are getting private treatment, you could still get NHS care but the NHS is very unlikely to offer the same treatment. This is so that the patients do not get the same treatment twice. While, it is perfectly appropriate to receive private psychiatric care and for the NHS to offer psychological treatment, this really depends on their service threshold and may refuse a referral even if we feel your child/young person needs it. We will write to your child’s GP to update them.
Whether the person you see is accredited or registered - If you decide to see someone who offers private mental healthcare, you should ask them about their qualifications and accreditations. At Animo Health all professionals have the right accreditations and registrations.
The quality of service - All assessments and treatment should following evidence based recommendation, such as those recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. We follow these guidelines and we will explain more during the appointments.
Getting a private second opinion accepted by the NHS - You might decide to ask for a second opinion. Some NHS services do not have to accept a second opinion which has done privately, so you should check with your NHS team first. Animo Health assessment are robust and done as per national guidelines and we already work with many GP services, Local Authorities and schools across the country.