J. J. Sandra Kooij

In 2002, I founded Program and Expertise Center Adult ADHD at Parnassia, later PsyQ, the Hague, The Netherlands. The aim was to serve patients, to teach colleagues in assessment and treatment, and to do research with a team at the Expertise Center, 'Kenniscentrum ADHD bij volwassenen en ouderen' to increase knowledge on this highly frequent disorder in adult psychiatry (www.psyq.nl). New knowledge is implemented in the outpatient clinics of PsyQ through the country. We started with a team of 5 professionals and 100 adult patients in 2003, and we currently treat around 1000 patients annually with a team of 55 professionals. The team had to develop everything, from the Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in adults (DIVA 2.0, currently DIVA-5), to methods for psycho-education, medication management, coaching and group CBT. We still teach every mental health care team in the country and abroad that wants to learn how to assess and treat ADHD in adults and older people. This pioneering process is described in more detail in my book Adult ADHD. Diagnostic Assessment and Treatment (4th ed. 2017, Springer). Since 2020 I am a professor on Adult ADHD at the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center/VUMc, in Amsterdam. I founded the Dutch Network of adult ADHD (www.adhdnetwerk.nl) (1998), the European Network Adult ADHD (www.eunetworkadultadhd.com) (2003) , the DIVA Foundation (www.divacenter.eu) (2007) and lately the Head Heart and Hormone Network (H3), together with a cardiologist and gynaecologist (www.h3-netwerk.nl) (2023).