Seeing which areas of life are affected.
Copeland Symptom Checklist for Adult Attention Deficit Disorders
ADHD can touch more than attention. It can show up in restlessness, organisation, emotions, work, and relationships. The Copeland Symptom Checklist is a questionnaire that covers this wider range of experiences in adults. It helps your psychologist see how strongly different areas are affected and where support may help most.
What the questionnaire looks at.
Attention and distraction
How easily you are distracted, how short your attention span feels, and how often you start things and find it hard to finish them.
Impulsiveness
Acting before thinking, interrupting, finding it hard to wait, and getting frustrated quickly.
Activity level
Restlessness, fidgeting, feeling constantly on the go, and finding it hard to be still.
Organisation and underachievement
Disorganisation, unfinished tasks, losing things, and a sense of not reaching your potential.
Emotions
How you feel about yourself and how frustration and mood show up in daily life.
Relationships
How these experiences show up with friends, colleagues, partners, and family.
Note: Are you unsure whether this is the right assessment? A short conversation with our team is a good place to start. We will recommend the right option for your situation.
Why this assessment may be recommended
You have struggled with focus, organisation, or restlessness for a long time.
You would like to understand which areas of your life are affected most.
You have often felt that you are not reaching your potential, and you wonder why.
Frustration, mood, or self-esteem seem tied up with these difficulties.
Relationships at work or at home have been affected by forgetfulness, interrupting, or impatience.
You would like a broad picture before talking through your history with a psychologist.
How the assessment works.
- 1Step 1
A conversation first
You meet a psychologist to talk about your concerns and your history and to decide together whether this assessment suits you.
- 2Step 2
The checklist
You mark how much each statement is true for you. Where it helps and if you are comfortable, someone who knows you well may also be asked to complete this questionnaire.
- 3Step 3
Review
Your psychologist looks at the areas that stand out and talks them through with you.
- 4Step 4
The rest of the assessment and feedback
Your answers are used along with the other parts of the assessment, including a screening questionnaire and the DIVA-5 interview. When every part is complete, you have a complimentary feedback session of about 1 hour where your full report is explained in plain language and next steps are discussed.
Confidential and clinically guided
Your assessment is carried out with professionalism, dignity, and confidentiality. Your psychologist explains what they find in plain language, and you can ask questions at any point.
Please note: The Copeland Symptom Checklist describes which areas of life are affected and how strongly. It cannot diagnose on its own. Many things can affect how you answer, including low mood, anxiety, stress, and poor sleep, and your psychologist considers these too. A diagnosis is a clinical decision made after looking at the full picture, including your history and your day-to-day life.
Things people ask
No. The most helpful thing you can do is answer as honestly as you can.
They show which areas, such as attention, restlessness, organisation, emotions, or relationships are affected most. Your psychologist explains what this means for you at your feedback session.
No. The checklist is one piece of information. Your psychologist considers it together with your history and the interview before reaching any conclusion.
If you are comfortable with it and if it is helpful, someone who knows you well may be asked to complete it. Your psychologist talks this through with you first.
The ASRS gives a quick first look at common signs of ADHD. The Copeland checklist is broader and shows which areas of life are affected.
ADHD can affect more than attention. Frustration, self-esteem, and relationships are often part of the picture so it helps your psychologist to see them.
Support depends on your needs. It may include practical strategies, therapy, and, where it could help, a consultation with a psychiatrist about whether medication is suitable.
Your results are kept confidential with the standard exceptions required by law such as a risk of serious harm to yourself or someone else. We talk with you about who will receive them before anything is shared.
The checklist described here is for adults. We offer a separate ADHD assessment for adolescents. Our care coordinator can advise on the right option.
Want to arrange an assessment, or just ask a question?
Our care coordinator will talk you through what to expect confidentially.
If you need urgent help: Are you in immediate distress? Please call iCall 9152987821 for immediate support.
