Drug and alcohol testing is only the beginning
Sample collection… medical interpretation…psychiatric assessment...an end to end service supporting childcare cases
Atkinson Lewis is more than a drug and alcohol testing service. We’re a team of Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Sample Collectors, supporting childcare cases by providing psychiatric assessments and expert medical interpretation for all of your Family Law Cases.
Do you need to ensure your medical reports are with you in time for court?
Do you need a company with years of experience in this field that can make your job as easy as possible?
Do you need a Drug and Alcohol Report from an accredited laboratory in both Hair and Blood?
Do you need a sample collections service by a trained Phlebotomist local to your area, allowing you to have both samples taken at one time saving you and your client time and money.
If you answered 'yes' to any of the above then you have found the supplier you have been searching for!
We can offer you the services of a team of specialists, pooled from the medical and scientific fields that feature in childcare cases and family law cases. As an organisation, we've spent 15 years helping the legal profession to establish patterns of Substance Abuse among parents and potential carers.
How can we be of benefit to you?
Every case is different, so we start by mapping out the support you're going to need for your individual case, then deliver a tailored mix of our core services:
Drug and alcohol testing
Most cases start with our drug and alcohol testing service. Our Sample Collectors will obtain forensic samples of hair, blood, saliva or urine, then we’ll work with a test laboratory to determine possible drug or alcohol misuse.
The choice of test will be dependent on the results your are hoping to obtain. For example a 3cm hair sample will give you an average history of approximately 3 months drug use or abstinence. A blood test for alcohol will give you a history of alcohol use as we look for the 6 markers involved in blood analysis.
Urine Testing will give you a history of 1-4 days and Oral Fluids/Saliva Testing will give you a history of the past 24 hours.
Generally in family law cases Hair and Blood would be used in the analysis for Drugs and Alcohol and often alcohol analysis in hair would be used alongside blood analysis to give you a much clearer picture of use with these combined test methods.
In the UK, we work with Laboratories Fully Accredited to European Standards. This gives us the opportunity to offer you the highest possible service and
quality available.
Medical interpretation
Once samples have been analysed, one of our Consultant Psychiatrists will give you their medical interpretation (also known as a ‘Commentary’). Everything is set out for the layman to understand, and we’ll recommend further medical examination if we believe it’s required. The great benefit here is that the results are interpreted by a Psychiatrist with many years 'hands on' experience in drugs and alcohol in patients, and not just a toxicologist with a scientific background. We want to make the Commentary as easy to read as possible giving you the confidence to relay the results in Court.
Psychiatric assessment
Where a parent or guardian’s mental state is called into question, our Psychiatrists/Psychologists can also provide detailed Psychiatric/Psychological reports, based on interviews, medical records and reading of Court Bundles.
Again giving you acess to our added service and a full report for your specific case requirements.
Long term monitoring
The results of testing and interpretation will be formally recorded, so we can compare results over time and comment on the changes. Our medical experts will instantly recognise new patterns or unusual results, and work to determine the root causes.
Working with Atkinson Lewis
In public or private law, Atkinson Lewis will support your childcare case from beginning to end. We have the experience, expertise and capacity.
In these pages you can find out more about our team of experts and our drug and alcohol testing services. For more information, just drop us a line. Or if you prefer, speak to us directly on 01792 578623.
