Dr. Kieran Kennedy

And I think it's so important, especially for our kids, that we make sure to push the fact that ADHD isn't just a negative thing.

It can have a lot of kind of superpower-y, really fantastic things about it sometimes as well.

Yeah, that's a big one.

I mean, I think for me, it would be increasing access to ADHD assessment and treatment with...

sort of more assistance for people on the funding side you know i think it's one thing to say oh well we should have adhd assessments in the public system but obviously the public system is also especially with psychiatry right now it's really also supporting a lot of people struggling with psychosis and with substance and addiction issues with depression um

So it's a really complex issue, but I think for me, it would be coming round to helping people access ADHD assessments and treatment.

And what that might look like is more funding to give people rebates or money back in terms of if they need to see a private psychiatrist, there would be some more financial support around that for people.

Because what we don't want, as we said before, is for this to become a

a privileged pathway in psychiatry and medicine where only the people who can afford to pay significant amounts for support get that support so i think for me it would be that funding side but possibly if any politicians heard that they would um you know roll their eyes and become a naive ranting doctor just asking for more money um but no that access side would be for me the big one yeah

Yeah, it really is.

And that's the most rewarding part of my job and why I love what I do.

It's meeting people at one point in their life where they're really, really struggling and really feeling like they're not managing.

And then I'm definitely not going to take all the credit for it because it's a lot of things usually.

But then meeting them six months or a year down the track and hearing that they have finished the degree that they were really struggling to stay afloat with or they finally started that business that they wanted to for so long or their relationships are better, their general health is better.

You know, that's really amazing.

I went to sort of like a charity event over in Sydney recently and I just happened to sort of meet a patient there, someone that I'd seen and assessed and started on a treatment plan for ADHD once.

was there and he came up to me and sort of said, oh, I hope this isn't awkward in terms of, it's a bit weird, you're not supposed to hug your psychiatrist or know them in person.

But no, he just sort of said, I just want to thank you so much in terms of like, it's changed my life.

work and my relationship and even you know my health my physical health is so much better so yeah it's just absolutely lovely to to kind of help support people and whether my part's just one percent of that or it's a bigger chunk of that it's it's you know just lovely to be a part of that

I mean, I think letting yourself just feel that emotion is the main one.