Clinicians and prescribers — FAQ

The quick consultation is designed exactly for this. A 20-minute teleconference with a written summary and one clear next step. 50. No referral form, no lengthy setup – just a focused conversation about the specific question in front of you, with the reasoning documented.

Useful for: a specific prescribing question, a regulatory or legislative query, a second opinion on a management decision, a drug interaction or monitoring question, or working out whether a full referral is warranted.

Targeted education and coaching for individual prescribers or small groups – on specific clinical topics, prescribing frameworks, regulatory navigation, or working with complex patients. Not generic continuing education. Tailored to what you actually need.

Topics include stimulants and ADHD prescribing, lithium and mood stabilisers, antipsychotics and metabolic monitoring, pharmacogenomics, hormonal interactions with psychotropics, navigating thin evidence, SafeScript, Special Access Scheme, and working with resistant or ambivalent patients and families. All education is 40/hr.

Small group sessions bring together clinicians to work through clinical topics, real cases, regulatory questions or prescribing frameworks in a focused, interactive format. Tailored to the group, built around questions submitted in advance. In person in Newcastle, online, or hybrid.

Coming soon. Expressions of interest welcome now.

I offer specialist, structured medication support for your most complex cases – polypharmacy, neurodivergence, multimorbidity, diagnostic uncertainty, or a situation where you or your patient feel stuck.

In a session with your patient, I take a thorough medication inventory and explore in detail how each medicine is working in their body and their life. Not just whether it is technically effective, but what they actually notice, what they are trading off, and what practical or sensory barriers are affecting how they actually use it. What I cover is matched to each situation – bespoke situations and bespoke solutions are what this service is built for.

I do not prescribe or change anything independently. All decisions rest with you and your patient.

Time. Depth. And a different kind of knowledge.

The main issue in complex cases is rarely knowledge. It is time. My training is different in its focus – I specialise in how medicines move through the body, how they interact, and how to navigate them in ADHD, autism and mental health across the lifespan. That is a complement to your clinical knowledge, not a commentary on it.

Referring is a sign of clinical thoroughness. I position it that way – to you and to your patient.

There is also a medico-legal dimension. Good medical practice in Australia requires documented reasoning, informed consent, shared decision making, and evidence that specialist input was sought where warranted. A Maxwell Minds report provides structured specialist review on file, documents the evidence base, supports genuine informed consent, and records that coordination happened. All prescribing decisions remain yours.

If the regimen is working and the person is well, you do not need me.

For patient referrals – specific patients who genuinely need this level of depth. Most patients do not need Maxwell Minds. Some will benefit significantly. You will know them when you see them.

The service is broader than patient referrals though. Penny is available for practice-level work – service review, systems optimisation, prescribing coaching, regulatory navigation, and bespoke solutions to medication-related problems that do not fit a standard referral model. Reach out. That conversation is always welcome.

No. Refer for a single case. Use it for one question. Pick it up and put it down as needed. No platform to sign up to, no change to how you work day-to-day. The easiest starting point is a 20-minute consultation – a focused conversation about one patient or one question. That is the whole commitment.

Send a brief clinical summary, the current medication list, any recent letters, and your key questions or constraints. Penny confirms scope and cost before any work begins, then gets to work. Updates and involvement are calibrated to whatever you indicated at referral.

No. I assume your current regimen has been chosen thoughtfully under complex circumstances, often with information I do not have access to. My job is to make the medication picture clearer – not to pass judgement on decisions I was not part of. Everything in my reports is framed as options to consider with rationale – not directives.

In practice it strengthens it. Confident prescribers refer. I am deliberate and consistent about your role with every patient – I explain that you hold their full clinical history, that you are the expert in their overall care, and that any changes go back through you. I frame your decision to bring in specialist support as a mark of how seriously you take their care.

Patients typically come back clearer, calmer and better able to have a productive conversation with you. More informed, not more demanding. Protecting your therapeutic alliance is not a side effect of this service. It is a design feature.

Completely. Maxwell Minds has no hospital system to answer to, no pharmaceutical company relationships of any kind, no funding tied to referral patterns or treatment outcomes. Not pro-medication or anti-medication. Not aligned with any diagnostic framework, therapeutic school or advocacy position.

My only obligations are to your patient’s best interests, to you as the referring clinician, and to my professional code of ethics and the law – a professional and legal obligation under the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s Code of Ethics, which places patient health and wellbeing as the first priority.

Independence from the system is not the same as independence from your patient’s care. I work alongside treating teams – not around them.

No – and it is worth understanding why, because the two services are frequently confused. A Home Medicines Review is a Medicare-funded service for elderly or chronically unwell patients where medication safety and adherence are the primary concern. A valuable service for that population.

Maxwell Minds specialises in ADHD, autism and mental health across the full lifespan – a population Penny has studied to a completely different depth and in a fundamentally different way. The scope, the training, the independence, the time and the documentation are categorically different. Some aspects overlap – if an HMR is more appropriate, Penny will say so.

Maxwell Minds and an HMR are not competing services. The name overlap ends there.