Position Statements

Policy & advocacy

Position statements.

Formal positions of AUDHD Australia on policy, clinical practice, and systemic issues affecting Australians with co-occurring ADHD and Autism. These statements guide our advocacy, inform our submissions to government, and are available for citation by researchers, policymakers, and media.

Position statement 1 · Adopted March 2025

Integrated assessment pathways for co-occurring ADHD and Autism

AUDHD Australia holds that ADHD and Autism must be assessed as co-occurring conditions, not in isolation. The current Australian diagnostic framework routinely separates ADHD and Autism assessments across different clinicians, wait lists, and funding streams. This fragmentation leads to partial diagnosis, delayed treatment, and compounding harm — particularly for women, First Nations peoples, and adults diagnosed later in life.

We call on state and federal health departments to fund and incentivise integrated AuDHD assessment clinics, update Medicare Benefits Schedule items 291, 293, and 296 to explicitly accommodate dual-condition assessment, and mandate that diagnostic guidelines issued by the NHMRC reflect the clinical reality of co-occurrence.

Position statement 2 · Adopted March 2025

NDIS eligibility and co-occurring ADHD and Autism

AUDHD Australia holds that the National Disability Insurance Scheme must recognise the compounding functional impact of co-occurring ADHD and Autism. Current NDIS access criteria assess each condition separately, meaning many AuDHD Australians are found ineligible despite experiencing significant disability arising from the interaction between both conditions.

We call on the NDIA to adopt assessment frameworks that account for the multiplicative — not merely additive — functional impact of AuDHD, and to train access assessors in the presentation and support needs specific to co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions.

Position statement 3 · Adopted March 2025

Workplace disclosure and reasonable adjustment for AuDHD employees

AUDHD Australia holds that no Australian should be required to disclose a neurodevelopmental condition to access reasonable adjustments in the workplace. Current employer practice overwhelmingly treats disclosure as a prerequisite for accommodation, placing the burden of systemic change on the individual employee — often at significant personal and professional risk.

We call on the Australian Human Rights Commission and Safe Work Australia to issue updated guidance on neurodevelopmental conditions in the workplace, establish a framework for universal adjustments that do not require diagnosis or disclosure, and enforce existing Disability Discrimination Act protections as they apply to AuDHD employees.

Position statement 4 · Adopted March 2025

Medicare-funded access to AuDHD-informed clinical care

AUDHD Australia holds that all Australians with co-occurring ADHD and Autism must be able to access affordable, clinically appropriate care through the Medicare system. The current Mental Health Treatment Plan structure limits patients to 10 subsidised psychology sessions per year — grossly insufficient for managing two interacting neurodevelopmental conditions alongside the anxiety, depression, and burnout that routinely accompany AuDHD.

We call on the Department of Health and Aged Care to increase the annual session cap for neurodevelopmental conditions, create a dedicated MBS item for AuDHD-specific therapeutic intervention, and fund training pathways so that Australian psychologists and psychiatrists graduate with competence in co-occurring presentations.

Position statement 5 · Adopted March 2025

Inclusive education for students with co-occurring ADHD and Autism

AUDHD Australia holds that Australian schools must be equipped to support students with co-occurring ADHD and Autism within mainstream education settings. AuDHD students are disproportionately suspended, excluded, and funnelled into restrictive settings — not because of the severity of their condition, but because of the inflexibility of the system around them.

We call on state and territory education departments to mandate teacher training in co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions, fund in-school AuDHD support coordinators, eliminate the use of suspension and exclusion as behavioural responses to neurodevelopmental distress, and ensure that Individualised Learning Plans explicitly account for the interaction between ADHD and Autism.

These position statements are approved by the Board of Directors of AUDHD Australia and are reviewed annually. For media enquiries or to cite these positions, contact hello@audhd.org.au.