We are delighted that The AHSN Network’s Focus ADHD Programme and Qbtech won the Innovative Mental Health Intervention category at the National Mental Health and Wellbeing awards - 2022 last night.

The judges in this category were looking for innovation that supports individuals experiencing poor mental health as well as changing the status quo within the sector. They stated that they were impressed with:

• ‘the way the programme is using technology to overcome a problem that has caused pain and suffering, difficulties, and delays for so many people - challenging those traditional pathways.’

As well as

• ‘the evidence base of the differences the programme has made to waiting lists and diagnosis’.

The AHSN Network’s Focus ADHD programme is in its final year of a three-year national programme. Almost 75,000 people (aged 6-18 years) have received an objective assessment for ADHD since Academic Health Science Networks began to support a digital innovation, QbTest in 2017.

QbTest is an approved computer-supported objective test which measures attention, motor activity and impulsivity – the core symptoms of ADHD. The results are instantly analysed and presented in a report which compares a patient’s results against a normative dataset based on age and gender.

ADHD practitioners then use information from the QbTest report alongside their clinical assessment to inform their decision on whether the young person has ADHD or not.

Mark Dines-Allen, programme manager for the AHSN Network said: “This award was achieved through the excellent partnership and collaborative working of all 15 AHSNs, Qbtech and the service providers across the country.” 

Find out more about the programme.