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Public vs Private ADHD Assessment in Australia

Most people assessed for ADHD in Australia go through the private system. Here is the clearest documented public-system data point, from the ACT, set against the national private-system average.

Most people assessed for ADHD in Australia go through the private system. The clearest documented public-system data point available, from the ACT, shows average waits measured in years rather than weeks, and as of October 2025 that service is not taking new adult referrals at all.

The clearest public-system data point: the ACT

The ACT Government's Adult Community Mental Health Services stopped accepting new adult ADHD assessment referrals from 1 October 2025. A ministerial brief from May 2025 put the public wait at over 24 months, and of 330 people on the broader moderate-mental-illness waitlist that April, 27 were specifically waiting for an ADHD assessment, according to reporting in The Canberra Times. A GP pilot introduced in mid-2025 was positioned as a comparatively more affordable option than seeing a psychiatrist or paediatrician privately, though it does not replace the public specialist service that is no longer taking referrals.

The private-system average nationally

Nationally, the private system looks very different: an adult's first assessment appointment takes just over 10 weeks on average, and total assessment costs average close to $1,400, according to 2026 University of Wollongong reporting. Some private waits still run much longer, up to a year in some cases, and some assessments cost close to $4,000, but the national average sits far below the ACT's documented 24-month public figure.

The private system isn't a fast lane either

A shorter average wait does not mean the private system has spare capacity. The same 2026 University of Wollongong reporting that found the 10-week national average also found only 59 percent of clinicians contacted responded within two calls, and fewer than half had any availability to book at all, against a workforce of roughly 125 psychologists, 16 psychiatrists and 7 paediatricians per 100,000 Australians. The private pathway is faster than the ACT's public figure on average, but that average still means real searching, and sometimes real waiting, for an individual trying to book.

Why the comparison mostly stops at the ACT

The ACT is the clearest public-system figure available because a service closure and a ministerial brief put a specific number on the record. Most other states and territories do not publish an equivalent wait figure for ADHD assessment specifically, so a state-by-state public-versus-private comparison is not something that can be built responsibly from what is publicly documented right now. What's available is the ACT's number on one side and the national private average on the other. Not much else. Readers in other states should treat the ACT figure as an extreme case rather than a national baseline, and should expect their own state's public-versus-private gap to be unknown rather than assumed to match the ACT's.

Common questions

How long is the public wait for an ADHD assessment in the ACT?

A May 2025 ministerial brief put the public wait at over 24 months, and the ACT Government's Adult Community Mental Health Services stopped accepting new adult ADHD assessment referrals altogether from 1 October 2025.

Source: The Canberra Times.

Is the private ADHD assessment pathway faster than the public one?

Based on the figures available, yes, by a wide margin. The national private-system average wait for an adult is just over 10 weeks, against a documented public wait of over 24 months in the ACT, though most other states do not publish an equivalent public figure to compare.

Sources

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