Your neuropsychologist may be able to address your concerns or questions during a flexible consultation process, without the need for a more comprehensive assessment.

The consultation will include an interview with yourself and may also include an interview with your support people, a review of relevant records, and potentially even brief cognitive screening depending on your needs and preferences. This may help to identify things that you can modify to improve your thinking. It can also save you valuable time and money. If more testing is needed after all, this process will form the first component of a more comprehensive assessment. If you exit the service at this point, your neuropsychologist can provide a short summary report catered to your needs.

Diagnostic assessments will provide evidence to clarify the presence of any brain conditions and cognitive difficulties. The process will help people better understand the way their brain is processing information and impacting their behaviour and daily living.

Your neuropsychologist will do this by speaking with you and your support people, looking at records and testing your different thinking skills.

All assessments will include recommendations to optimise cognitive health. A comprehensive neuropsychological report will be prepared after this.

Diagnostic assessments may be suitable for people with any developmental, degenerative or acquired conditions that are impacting their brain health, including:

• Acquired brain injury – e.g., head trauma, drug and alcohol use, stroke.

• Dementia syndromes – e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia.

• Other neurological conditions – e.g., multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, encephalitis.

• Neurodevelopmental conditions – e.g., intellectual disability, learning disorders.

It can be useful to figure out how someone is functioning before or after events that may impact their thinking. This may be before or after major medical procedures, following rehabilitation from periods of risky substance use, or as people enter their later life years. Assessments at this time are focused on establishing your cognitive profile so that any changes can be detected with confidence. This can greatly facilitate early intervention, the timely implementation of supports and general life planning, and determine whether any cognitive changes are expected to be permanent.

Formal support services such as the NDIS or DSP may require evidence of cognitive functioning to determine someone’s eligibility. This often constitutes a diagnostic neuropsychological assessment, in addition to commentary on the functional impacts of this across key life domains. This service provides a full diagnostic assessment and cognitive characterisation, with a comprehensive report that includes a separate functional domains statement/short report to comment on the impact of any cognitive disability present.

You can choose to come in for a feedback session for any service, with the exception of medicolegal assessments. In a feedback session, your neuropsychologist will walk you through the results of your consultation or assessment to help you to understand your thinking, and how to cope and manage with any thinking difficulties.

Assessments may be requested to provide the Courts with evidence to consider the influence of neuropsychological functioning on offending behaviour, or in civil matters for insurance purposes as a part of joint/independent medical examinations.