About Maxwell Minds
Penny Maxwell
Penny Maxwell is an independent consultant pharmacist with dual FANZCAP fellowships in Mental Health and Paediatrics, among the first in Australia to achieve both. She has more than twenty years of frontline experience across CAMHS, acute child and adolescent psychiatry, paediatric ADHD clinics and state level policy.
Her work benchmarking NSW CAMHS against the Maudsley Hospital in London led to her appointment as lead author of the Child and Adolescent chapter of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (8th edition), the global reference text for mental health prescribing. She also wrote the national accredited training framework that defines specialist mental health pharmacy practice in Australia.
Her practice blends deep clinical expertise with lived experience, including navigating her own previously undiagnosed ADHD and barriers to perimenopause care. She works alongside doctors, offering complementary expertise in how medicines behave in real bodies, in underrepresented populations and within complex regulatory systems. She is known for her clear thinking in uncertainty, her clear-eyed and kindhearted approach with families and her commitment to helping clinicians move forward to better health outcomes.
Maxwell Minds
Medication in ADHD, autism and mental health is complex, and families often end up carrying that complexity alone. Even simple decisions can stall, and stalled decisions keep children, teens and adults from getting the help they need.
Maxwell Minds provides a clear, practical service to move things forward.
We untangle the science, the systems and the real-world factors that shape your options.
We help you understand what is likely to help, what is unlikely to help and what is missing.
We support you to make decisions that are informed, realistic and usable in daily life.
The most costly treatment is the one that is wrong, missing or never started. Our role is to bring clarity, confidence and momentum so you can take the next step with purpose.
Our Values
Seeing the full person
We believe every person deserves to be seen accurately — not flattered, not managed, not fitted into the available category. Seen accurately, with their full complexity, their specific history, their genuine situation, and their potential. That belief shapes every part of how we work.
Honesty
We give clear, honest advice without rushing, oversimplifying or avoiding complexity. When uncertainty is real, we name it. That is an important part of safe, ethical care.
Non-judgemental approach
We require substantial information before forming any judgement, and most clinical encounters do not provide enough to justify one. Experience has taught us that the obvious explanation is often incomplete, so we take our time and look closely at the full picture.
Clear-eyed and kindhearted approach
Our approach is both clear-eyed and kindhearted. Kindness is a deliberate commitment to the person, not softness. We avoid making situations harder and bring warmth and steadiness to difficult conversations. Experience has shown us that this is not incidental to clinical effectiveness. It is central to it.
Independent and in your corner
Maxwell Minds is fully independent, with no hospital, pharmaceutical or outcome-linked funding. That independence is an ethical requirement. We cannot do this work from inside systems that have their own interests to protect.
MINDS Framework
M — Medication optimisation
Not just the right medication. The right medication for you — at the right dose, in the right form, monitored in the right way. Treatment tailored to your body, your goals, and your life.
I — Independent
No pharmaceutical relationships. No institutional agenda. No funding tied to any outcome. Advice shaped by your situation and nothing else. Independent of the system — never independent of you.
N — Neuroaffirming
Neurodivergence is not a problem to be fixed. Being different is not a deficit. Medication — when it is right — is not about changing who you are. It is about reducing the friction so you can be more fully yourself.
D — Different in a good way
This is not a standard clinical service, and it does not pretend to be. Specialist pharmacist expertise combined with the time, the independence, and the genuine human attention that complex medication care requires. Different by design.
S — Safe space, safe medications
A space where the things that haven’t been said can finally be said, and where the medication picture is approached with care, rigour and expertise. Both matter. Both are always present. I won’t assume medication is right or wrong without understanding your situation. My role is to give you clear, independent information so the decision is genuinely yours. If you leave still unsure, but with a clearer sense of what you are unsure about, that is still progress. Clarity often makes the next step possible.