ABOUT
Penny Maxwell
Independent consultant pharmacist. Specialist in medication for ADHD, autism and mental illness. Working alongside patients, families and the clinicians who care for them.
ABOUT PENNY
I’m Penny Maxwell – Pharmacist Consultant, FANZCAP (Mental Health and Paediatrics).
The combination of skills and experience I bring is genuinely rare. Add a love of solving problems and supporting people, and I’m ready to help with whatever you’re navigating when it comes to medication for ADHD, autism and mental illness. There isn’t much I haven’t seen. I look forward to working with you.
Maxwell Minds™ began in 2023 – initially at the request of patients and prescribers who needed the kind of specialist medication support I was providing within the health system, but privately and in the community. That work has been growing ever since.
CREDENTIALS
23+ years frontline specialist experience
My primary expertise is in child and adolescent mental health and adult mental health services – including community ADHD paediatric teams, child and adolescent inpatient units, mental health intensive care, eating disorders and general adult mental health inpatient services. I also have extensive experience in general paediatrics, general medicine, medicines information, policy and managing a tertiary hospital pharmacy dispensary.
I work embedded in clinical teams – on the ward, in the unit, alongside nurses, allied health staff, doctors and patients. Not in a dispensary. In the room where the complex decisions get made.
Across more than 23 years I have worked directly with countless patients, families and carers navigating medication in ADHD, autism and mental health – the pharmacotherapy conversations, the difficult discussions about fears and hopes, the safe space where the real questions finally get asked.
I have spent my career at the intersection of the most complex cases in this space – working alongside countless specialists, clinicians and GPs across tertiary referral services. I understand what good specialist support looks like in practice, what difference it makes, and what is lost when it isn’t there.
Pharmacist Consultant – FANZCAP (Mental Health and Paediatrics)
Among the first awarded when the consultant pharmacist recognition program originated in Australia, and one of an extremely small number to hold both Mental Health and Paediatrics fellowships. The recognition formalised experience in specialist clinical pharmacy that was already rare in practice and has been sustained across more than two decades.
Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines – Lead Author
Lead author, Child and Adolescent chapter of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (8th edition) – the global reference text for mental health prescribing, translated into 19 languages.
SHPA Training Residency Framework – Author
Wrote the Knowledge and Skills component for the SHPA Training Residency Framework for Mental Health – the official specialist clinical pharmacist training program through which pharmacists gain formal recognition for advanced practice in mental health pharmacy across Australia.
Education, workshops and public engagement
Developer and facilitator of highly-rated workshops including Who Wants to be a Drug Lord? and My Child Has Been Diagnosed with ADHD – Now What? – the latter developed with clinicians, GPs, parents and carers across Hunter New England.
Invited speaker to educators, school counsellors, clinicians and community groups. Author of clinical education resources across paediatric and mental health specialties.
Australian clinical reviewer for Choice and Medication – an internationally used, quality-assured patient medication information platform written by mental health pharmacists.
More credentials ↓
NSW Health ADHD Co-Management Project – Lead Pharmacist
Lead pharmacist, NSW Health ADHD co-management project, Hunter New England – designing the medication safety systems, navigating legislation and policy, building clinician confidence, co-designing the model with clinicians, GPs, parents and carers.
NHS Medicines Information – Trained
Trained by NHS Medicines Information UK and worked with NHS Direct – the foundation of how I translate complex clinical information into language that actually helps people decide.
Postgraduate Certificate in Psychiatric Therapeutics – Distinction
Postgraduate Certificate in Psychiatric Therapeutics with Distinction, Aston University.
John Hunter Children’s Hospital – Agitation Guidelines Author
Lead author, inpatient management of agitation guidelines for John Hunter Children’s Hospital including the psychiatric unit – invited to present by the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Clinical Excellence Commission.
HNEKids Stimulant Shortage Program – Designer
Designed the stimulant shortage management program for HNEKids – now adopted as standard practice across Hunter New England.
NSW Stimulant Legislation – Position Paper Author
Lead author, official HNE position paper on NSW stimulant legislation and policy reform – submitted to NSW government by HNE executive.
NSW Statewide Formulary – Expert Advisory Panel
Member, NSW Expert Advisory Panel for statewide formulary development – Quality Use of Medicines committees across the region.
University of Newcastle – Masters Module Author
Wrote the medication module for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Nursing Masters program, University of Newcastle.
Penny is short for Penelope. Same person, same expertise.
Over many years I developed and refined my approach to working with families, carers and patients in complex medication situations – the shared decision making, the difficult conversations, the pharmacotherapy side. Maxwell Minds is that work, now available directly.
HOW I WORK – THE MINDS FRAMEWORK™
Five commitments that shape everything I do.
M Medication optimisation – Not just the right medication
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.
MEDWISE™ is the clinical framework that makes this possible. Read more about MEDWISE →
I Independent Professional – Bound by professional, legal and ethical obligations
My independence is not a positioning statement. As a registered pharmacist I am bound by professional, legal and ethical obligations that include it – patient health and wellbeing first, advice independent of any commercial considerations, professional judgement and integrity upheld, conflicts of interest managed transparently.
That independence is what makes the work valuable. It means advice shaped entirely by the situation and the evidence – not by the system, the referral pathway, or anyone else’s agenda.
No hospital system. No pharmaceutical ties. No referral incentives. No funding linked to any outcome. My judgement belongs to the patient and the evidence.
N Neuroaffirming – Neurodivergence is not a problem to be fixed
Tired of being misunderstood? Worried about someone not getting it? The exhaustion of masking, or struggling with something that seems so simple – like remembering to take your medication, or making an appointment, or sending that email.
Being different is not an illness. No shame or judgement here – about any question, any issue, any need.
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.
In sessions I draw things out – diagrams to explain complex medication concepts in real time rather than talking at you. Fidgets are available. The way information is delivered is part of the clinical work, not an afterthought.
You do not need a diagnosis to come. Many people arrive questioning, self-identified, or still working out what is going on.
Your experience is real. You are believed.
D Different in a good way – Specialist expertise with time and independence
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 – Where the unsaid can finally be said
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.
Everything above starts from one belief: every person deserves to be seen accurately, with their full complexity and their genuine situation. That shapes all of it.
HELP SHAPE MAXWELL MINDS
This service is being built to work for everyone who needs it – not just the people clinical services were originally designed for.
If you have lived experience of navigating medication for ADHD, autism or mental illness – for yourself, a loved one, or as a professional – I’d like to hear from you. I’m looking for people from diverse neurotypes, backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities and genders who want to help make this service genuinely inclusive from the ground up.
This is not a token consultation. It is a real invitation to shape something new.
If that sounds like you, get in touch.
OUTSIDE THE CLINIC
I’m a keen artist, love going on road trips in my teardrop caravan, and am the devoted owner of two cats who I adore. Newcastle is home.
A NOTE ON TRANSPARENCY
I recommend Choice and Medication – an independent, pharmaceutical-industry-free patient medication information platform written by mental health pharmacists like me – because I believe it is one of the best resources of its kind. I secured organisational funding for HNE to access it, and subsequently undertook private contracted review work for the platform. That contract is complete and there is no ongoing financial relationship. I continue to recommend it because it is good, not because I have a stake in it. I have no financial stake in the business.
When you are ready, the first step is a 20-minute introductory session. No referral needed. No pressure.