Most adults who look into an assessment have been noticing the same things for years. Work that should take an hour takes four. Instructions disappear somewhere between hearing them and sitting down. Social situations leave you flattened in a way other people do not seem to feel, and you have started to wonder whether there is an explanation you have been missing. Whether an assessment is the right next step depends on what you want it to answer, how much written detail you need, and which clinician level conducts it, because all three change the process and the fee.
The Cognitive & Interpersonal Therapy Centre (CITC) provides adult ADHD and adult autism assessments with documented protocols and fees set by clinician level. This article sets out what each assessment involves, how many appointments and hours it takes, which standardized measures are used, what each one costs, and what the resulting report can reasonably be used for.
How Do You Know Whether an Adult Assessment Is Worth Pursuing?
An adult assessment is usually worth pursuing when a specific decision depends on the answer, rather than when curiosity alone prompts the question. That decision might be whether to request accommodations at work or school, whether to raise medication with a physician, whether to change how you structure your day, or whether a long history of difficulty has an explanation that would change how you approach it.
The concerns adults most often bring to an ADHD or autism assessment include:
- Difficulty starting or finishing tasks that matter to you
- Losing track of time, appointments, deadlines or belongings
- Restlessness, or difficulty sitting through meetings and conversations
- Exhaustion after social contact that others find ordinary
- Difficulty reading tone, subtext or unspoken social rules
- Strong sensitivity to noise, light, texture or crowding
- A long-standing sense of working much harder than peers for the same result
None of these on its own indicates ADHD or autism. Each of them also appears in anxiety, depression, sleep difficulty, burnout and periods of high stress, which is part of why an assessment involves standardized measures and a structured interview rather than a checklist. If you are unsure whether an assessment is the right starting point, CITC’s Clinical Coordinator can talk through what you are hoping the assessment will answer before anything is booked.
What an Adult ADHD Assessment Involves, Step by Step
A standard adult ADHD assessment at CITC runs across four to five appointments and takes approximately 9.5 to 15 hours of clinician time in total, only part of which you attend. The stages documented in CITC’s adult ADHD protocol are:
- Clinical interview, 1.5 to 2 hours. You meet with the assessing clinician and complete the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) during the session.
- Background review, 0.5 to 1 hour. If you can supply school records, prior assessments or relevant reports, the clinician reviews them.
- Informant interview, 1 to 1.5 hours. Someone who knows you well, often a partner, parent or close friend, is interviewed separately.
- Questionnaire review, 1 to 2 hours. The clinician scores and interprets the standardized measures listed in the next section.
- Follow-up interview, 1 to 1.5 hours. Remaining questions are worked through and inconsistencies are clarified.
- Report writing, 4 to 6 hours. The clinician writes up the findings, the reasoning and the recommendations.
- Feedback session, 0.5 to 1 hour. The results are explained to you in person or virtually, with time for questions.
The protocol allows the assessing clinician to add symptom-specific measures where the clinical picture calls for them, so the exact hours vary between clients. If you want to know how the stages would be scheduled around your work or caregiving commitments, that is a question for CITC’s Clinical Coordinator at the point of enquiry.
Which Measures Are Used in an Adult ADHD Assessment
CITC’s standard adult ADHD assessment uses seven measure categories alongside the client and informant interviews, with two of those categories offering the clinician a choice between two instruments.
|
Measure |
Where it sits in the assessment |
|---|---|
|
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) |
Completed with the clinician during the initial clinical interview |
|
Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory (CEFI) or Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Adult Version (BRIEF-A) |
Executive function measure; the clinician selects one of the two |
|
Conners |
ADHD symptom rating scale |
|
Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL) |
Broad behavioural rating completed as part of the questionnaire set |
|
Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) or Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) |
Broader symptom or personality measure; the clinician selects one of the two |
|
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) |
Screens mood symptoms that can look like, or sit alongside, ADHD |
|
Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) |
Screens anxiety symptoms that can look like, or sit alongside, ADHD |
A version of the assessment with a cognitive component is also available. It is delivered virtually and adds the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Stroop task in a one-hour testing session, following a 1.5-hour diagnostic interview, with approximately seven hours of scoring and report writing and a 30-minute feedback session.
The battery is not identical for every client, because the protocol permits clinical judgement and additional symptom-specific measures. If you have completed any of these measures elsewhere recently, mention it when you speak with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator so the assessing clinician can take it into account.
What an Adult ADHD Assessment Costs in Toronto
At CITC the fee for a standard adult ADHD assessment is set by the level of the clinician who conducts it, and ranges from $1,260 with a supervised practicum student to $2,100 with a Clinical Psychologist. Assessment pricing is not a single universal fee, and it varies by assessment type as well as by provider level.
Private assessments in Ontario are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Many extended health plans reimburse psychological services, though whether yours applies depends on your plan, the designation of the provider, the specific service and your insurer’s rules. CITC receipts can be submitted to your insurer where applicable, and CITC can direct bill participating TELUS Health eClaims payers, Sun Life and Medavie Blue Cross when a client is eligible. The most reliable way to find out what your own plan will do is to ask your insurer about psychological assessment coverage, then confirm the fee level with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator.
How an Adult Autism Assessment Is Different
An adult autism assessment at CITC is delivered virtually, starts at $4,500, and is built around a developmental diagnostic interview rather than the questionnaire-led structure of the ADHD assessment. The documented fee range is $4,500 to $5,000, and where an autism and ADHD assessment are requested together at intake the fee is $5,000.
Before the first session you complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). The assessment itself then includes the Autism Development Diagnostic Interview, one or more informant interviews, and testing using the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2), the BRIEF, the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q), the AQ, the Stroop task and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). A feedback session of 30 to 60 minutes follows.
The inclusion of the CAT-Q matters for adults who reach adulthood without an identification. Camouflaging, meaning the conscious or habitual masking of autistic traits in social settings, is common among autistic adults assessed later in life and can make traits less visible to an observer while remaining exhausting to maintain. Measuring it directly gives the assessing clinician information that an interview alone may not surface. If you are weighing an autism assessment against an ADHD assessment, or think both may be relevant, raise that with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator at intake, because the combined pathway is arranged at that point rather than added later.
What an Assessment Report Can Be Used For, and What It Cannot Promise
An assessment report sets out the referral question, the measures used, the clinical findings and the recommendations, and it can be used to support a request for workplace or academic accommodations. No report, from any provider, is automatically accepted by a particular employer, school board, university or insurer. Each of those bodies applies its own criteria, and some request specific documentation or their own forms.
Three further limits are worth knowing before you book:
- An assessment is not a guaranteed diagnosis. It answers the referral question, and the conclusions depend on what the clinical findings actually show.
- CITC does not provide medication management. There is no in-house psychiatrist, so any medication discussion happens with your physician or nurse practitioner, who may use the report as part of their own decision making.
- Not every CITC clinician provides assessments, formal diagnoses, reports or disability paperwork. Formal psychological assessment and diagnosis sit within the scope of Clinical Psychologists, and referrals are matched accordingly.
If your reason for seeking an assessment is a specific accommodation request, say so when you contact CITC. The Clinical Coordinator can check whether what you need falls within the scope of the assessment you are considering before you commit to it.
Adult ADHD and Autism Assessments at CITC
CITC provides adult ADHD and autism assessments alongside individual therapy, which means an assessment and any therapy that follows can sit within the same practice. In-person services are provided at 20 Eglinton Ave. West, Suite 1007 in Midtown Toronto, near Yonge and Eglinton, and virtual services are available throughout Ontario.
Assessments are conducted by Clinical Psychologists, residents, PhD-level therapists and supervised practicum students, and the fee follows the level of the assessing clinician. Practicum students work under the supervision of a Clinical Psychologist. Where a referral question is broader than ADHD or autism, a psychodiagnostic assessment may be the better fit, and the full range of assessments for adults includes psychoeducational, learning disability and strength-based options.
CITC does not publish fixed assessment wait times, because timing depends on which clinicians are accepting new clients when you enquire. Where an appropriate clinician is accepting and has an available appointment, there is no separate waiting-list period and the next available opening can be booked. Intake begins with a brief complimentary phone call with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator, who matches the referral to a clinician by scope, specialty, modality and current availability.
Questions People Ask Before Booking an Adult Assessment
Does OHIP cover an adult ADHD assessment at CITC?
No. Private psychological assessment is not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Many extended health plans reimburse psychological services, and CITC receipts can be submitted to your insurer where applicable, but coverage depends on your plan, the provider’s designation, the service and your insurer’s rules.
Can the assessment be completed entirely online?
Yes, for two of them. The adult autism assessment and the adult ADHD assessment with a cognitive component are both documented as virtual services. For the standard adult ADHD assessment, confirm the format with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator when you enquire, since it depends on the assessing clinician.
How long does it take to receive the written report?
CITC does not publish a fixed turnaround for ADHD or autism reports. The adult ADHD protocol allocates four to six hours of clinician time to report writing, and the cognitive-component version allocates roughly seven hours to scoring and report writing together. For comparison, CITC’s brief psychodiagnostic assessment typically completes in about three weeks and the comprehensive version in about six weeks, of which report writing is about two weeks once all data are collected.
Will the assessment tell me whether to start medication?
No. CITC does not have an in-house psychiatrist and does not provide medication management. Medication decisions are made with a physician or nurse practitioner, who may draw on the assessment report as part of that conversation.
Do I need someone else to take part in the assessment?
Yes, in most cases. The standard adult ADHD protocol includes an informant interview of one to one and a half hours, and the adult autism assessment includes one or more informant interviews. The informant is usually a partner, parent, sibling or long-standing friend. If arranging one is difficult, raise it at intake rather than assuming it rules the assessment out.
What if I am not sure ADHD or autism is the right question?
A psychodiagnostic assessment may suit better when the referral question is broader. CITC’s brief psychodiagnostic assessment runs approximately five hours and is $1,375 with a Clinical Psychologist, $1,250 with a PhD-level therapist and $875 with a supervised practicum student. The comprehensive version runs approximately ten hours and is $2,750, $2,500 and $1,750 at those same provider levels.
How is payment handled?
Billing and payment are administered through OWL Practice. Credit card payments run through Stripe within OWL, and CITC also accepts e-transfer, cash and bank deposit. CITC does not use a physical point-of-sale terminal.
If an adult ADHD or autism assessment sounds like the right next step, the place to start is a brief complimentary phone call with CITC’s Clinical Coordinator, who can talk through the referral question, the likely fee level and current clinician availability before anything is booked. CITC provides in-person assessments in Midtown Toronto and virtual services throughout Ontario. Contact CITC to arrange that call.
