Dr Paul Bester

Dr Bester is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, and has had a well established practice at the Priory Hospital Roehampton for 15 years. He offers assessment and treatment for a range of conditions including anxiety, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, emerging personality difficulties, and developmental disorders such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and assessment of neurodiversity, including the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition and the management of related psychological impact.

Dr Bester is known for his compassion and care and prioritises connection with you and your child/teenager to encourage trust and open communication and will tailor his care to suit the individual needs of each child or young person. This may involve medication and /or co-working with an appropriate therapist(s).

Dr Bester has excellent working relationships with an extensive network of colleagues and therapists, and receives outstanding testimonials from his colleagues, patients and their parents.

He offers mainly outpatient treatment, but can also offer adolescent inpatient assessment and treatment.

If medication is indicated, Dr Bester will formulate a safe protocol, discuss the mechanisms and risks and provide support throughout. He works with Pharmacierge, who deliver privately prescribed medication to your door, and with NHS GPs -using shared care protocols to prescribe medication, when appropriate to do so safely and if your GP agrees, although many GPs are unable to prescribe specialist-only medications.

For complex treatment issues, and when indicated and/or specifically requested, he will undertake pharmaco-genetic testing to optimise treatment decisions and identify patient-specific genetic markers. This information provides guidance about which medication is likely to work as intended, as well as the risk of adverse effects. It involves an easy home- administered cheek (buccal) swab test.

Dr Bester completed specialist training based at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London in child and adolescent psychiatry, followed by a further training in forensic psychiatry and spent the early part of his professional consultant career in the NHS. He also worked as an expert witness in child and family matters in the criminal and family courts for many years, and is a fully trained forensic and child & adolescent psychiatrist. For the last 15 years he has devoted all his time to clinical practise. He has had opinion published in The Times and The Telegraph and various newspapers, and has presented at UK and international conferences. He has also published research in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry.

The clinic faces high demand at times and is often booked up in advance. Please note that urgent or emergency appointments are not available.

Dr. Bester has expertise in the following areas:

• Autism: 3di and ADOS (multidisciplinary assesment with a colleague)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Depression
• Anxiety Disorder
• Emerging Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Complex Trauma
• OCD
• Psychosis
• Complex co-occurring conditions.

How to obtain an appintment:

Dr Bester does not offer in-person appointments, apart from  ADOS assessments for autism, and all appointments take place via Zoom as this is the method preferred by the vast majority of his patients and their parents as patients do not have to attend at a busy hospital nor wait in waiting rooms with adults. It has proven to be a much more personal and relaxed setting which is child and adolescent friendly.

A referral letter is usually required from your regular GP -who can access your child's medical history,  setting out their medical and psychiatric history. Copies of any assessments from other mental health interventions that may have taken place are also required please.  Please send your query or a GP referral letter and documents to Dr Bester's admin team, at pa@doctorpaulbester.com.    Please communicate via email rather than telephone as response times for calls will be much longer. This also enables the requisite record keeping of discussions and any advice that is given by Dr Bester.