Gordon Brown (RMN)
Changing Lanes Project
Gordon Brown is the project leader for Changing Lanes Project. The project is unique, certainly in Scotland, as it is nurse-led and a diagnosis of ADHD can be made by Gordon without recourse to a psychiatrist. He is responsible for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children and young people with ADHD in the Falkirk area.
He qualified as a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) in 1992 and has worked in CAMHS ever since. He worked for 5 years in an adolescent unit in Glasgow, progressing through the nursing grades from D to F before moving out to the community where he worked as a G Grade Nurse Therapist for 3 years in Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow. He moved to Falkirk in 1999 to take up the post of Clinical Nurse Specialist ( H Grade). In July 2003, he was appointment Child & Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner for Changing Lanes Project. The grading for this post is similar to that of a clinical psychologist.
Further to his RMN qualification, he has completed Professional Studies II in CAMHS (ENB equivalent). He graduated in 2003 from Napier University with BSc Hons Nursing (Child & Adolescent Mental Health) with Specialist Practitioner Qualification. He is trained in 0-12 Group Triple P and Teen Group Triple P and has recently completed the supplementary nurse-prescribing course.
He previously developed an ADHD clinic called the Active Behaviour Clinic (ABC) which ran parallel to nursing guidelines that he developed for ADHD. In 2003, he audited these developments against Scotland's national guidelines for ADHD, SIGN 52. Overall, 76% of these guidelines were being met. The main shortcomings were with school based interventions for children with ADHD - This was a Grade A recommendation by SIGN (the highest grade). The aim of Changing Lanes Project is to compliment existing services for ADHD and bridge the gaps in service provision highlighted through the audit.