gps can now diagnose adhd in nsw — but what about the audhd half?

From March 2026, trained GPs in NSW can diagnose and treat ADHD. It's the most significant access reform in years — and for many Australians who've been waiting 12 months and paying upwards of $1,400 just to get answers, it's genuinely welcome news. But if you're one of the estimated 650,000 people in this country living with both ADHD and autism — AUDHD — the reform only gets you halfway there.

what changed, and why it matters

In February 2026, the NSW government announced that trained general practitioners could begin diagnosing and treating ADHD from March — joining Victoria and other states in a push to reduce the crushing waitlists and costs that have long locked people out of care. Nearly 600 GPs signed up for training, with NSW Health covering the costs and prioritising practitioners in regional and remote areas where specialist access is almost non-existent.

The numbers that drove this reform are hard to argue with. Research published in 2026 found that the average cost of an adult ADHD assessment runs over $1,600 with a psychologist, and wait times of 10 weeks to a year are standard. For people in rural areas, those numbers are worse. This is a system that was failing people — and the GP pathway is a real, meaningful step forward.

the audhd gap that reform doesn't fix

Here's what the headlines aren't saying: ADHD and autism co-occur in a significant proportion of people. Research consistently shows that between 50–70% of autistic people also meet the criteria for ADHD, and vice versa. For this group — the AUDHD community — a diagnosis of ADHD alone is often just the first piece of a much more complex puzzle.

GPs trained under the NSW reform are equipped to identify and treat ADHD. They are not trained to screen for autism, recognise how the two conditions interact, or provide the kind of nuanced, dual-lens assessment that people with AUDHD actually need. This means someone could go to their GP, receive an ADHD diagnosis, start treatment — and still spend years wondering why things don't quite add up. The masking, the sensory sensitivities, the social exhaustion, the burnout: all of that remains unnamed.

the cost of being missed — twice

New research published in 2026 paints a clear picture of what late and incomplete diagnosis costs people. A study exploring the lived experiences of women diagnosed with both autism and ADHD in adulthood — many of whom received their diagnoses in their 30s and 40s — found participants navigating a "confusing process of renegotiating self-identity" and reporting significant emotional harm from years of having their struggles questioned. A separate Australian study found that autistic women diagnosed after the age of 30 described their diagnosis as "life-changing" — but also spoke of the grief that comes with understanding, too late, why so much of life had felt so hard.

For AUDHD people, there are often two missed diagnoses: the ADHD that gets picked up eventually, and the autism that doesn't. Each missed piece means more years of incorrect treatment, misplaced self-blame, and burnout. The GP reform, for all its genuine value, doesn't change this. It may even entrench it, if ADHD becomes the easy answer that stops people looking further.

what we actually need

audhd australia has been saying this for a while: Australia has no dedicated clinical guidelines for co-occurring ADHD and autism. There is no national data collection. There is no NDIS primary category for AUDHD. The infrastructure that this community needs — properly trained assessors, accessible dual-diagnosis pathways, post-diagnostic support that understands the interaction between both conditions — simply does not exist at scale.

The NSW GP reform is a win worth acknowledging. Access matters. But access to a partial answer isn't the same as access to care. For the AUDHD community, the next step isn't just more GPs — it's building the systems, the training, and the advocacy that ensures a dual diagnosis is actually on the table.

If this resonates with your experience, share it — with your GP, with your community, with anyone who's still searching for answers. And if you're looking for a community that gets it, we're here. join audhd australia and help us build the infrastructure this community deserves.