One of the key recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline on the diagnosis and management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, young people and adults in September 2008 (1) is that Health Trusts, in collaboration with major stakeholders, develop ADHD Specialist teams that will be instrumental in implementing integrated care pathways. An ADHD integrated care pathway (ICP) can provide a valuable structure for patient identification, referral, assessment, diagnosis, management, support and follow up. By assisting a patient through their healthcare journey, an ICP can help to facilitate effective clinical governance. An ICP should set standards for interventions that are evidence based in line with the definition of clinical governance by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI). In this paper, the advantages of an Integrated Multiagency ADHD Care Pathway, together with the steps required in its development and implementation are considered.
Keywords: Integrated care pathway, ADHD, NICE, clinical governance, stakeholders