ABOUT
Penny Maxwell
Independent consultant pharmacist. Specialist in medication for ADHD, autism and mental illness. Working alongside patients, families and the clinicians who care for them.
ABOUT PENNY
I’m Penny Maxwell – Pharmacist Consultant, FANZCAP (Mental Health and Paediatrics).
The combination of skills and experience I bring is rare. Add a love of solving problems and supporting people, and I’m ready to help with whatever you’re navigating when it comes to medication for ADHD, autism and mental illness. There isn’t much I haven’t seen. I look forward to working with you.
Penny is short for Penelope. Same person, same expertise.
Maxwell Minds™ began in 2023 – initially at the request of patients and prescribers who needed the kind of specialist medication support I was providing within the health system, but privately and in the community. That work has been growing ever since.
CREDENTIALS
20+ years frontline specialist experience
My primary expertise is in child and adolescent mental health and adult mental health services – including community ADHD paediatric teams, child and adolescent inpatient units, mental health intensive care, eating disorders and general adult mental health inpatient services. I also have extensive experience in general paediatrics, general medicine, medicines information, policy and managing a tertiary hospital pharmacy dispensary.
I have spent my career embedded in clinical teams on hospital wards, or community teams, the unit, alongside nurses, allied health staff, doctors and patients. I haven’t worked in a dispensary in years. It’s one of the different things about my background to what many people think of when they hear the word pharmacist. In the room where the complex decisions get made. Part of the team or educating and writing for people and families on the front line of tough decisions.
Across more than 20 years I have worked directly with countless patients, families and carers navigating medication in ADHD, autism and mental health – the pharmacotherapy conversations, the difficult discussions about fears and hopes, the safe space where the real questions finally get asked.
I have spent my career at the intersection of the most complex cases in this space – working alongside countless specialists, clinicians and GPs across tertiary referral services. I understand what good specialist support looks like in practice, what difference it makes, and what is lost when it isn’t there.
Pharmacist Consultant – FANZCAP (Mental Health and Paediatrics) – one of two in Australia
Among the first awarded when the consultant pharmacist accreditation program originated in Australia, and one of two to hold both Mental Health and Paediatrics fellowships, the only one in private practice. Read more about this here.
Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines – Lead Author
Lead author, Child and Adolescent chapter of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (8th edition) – a core textbook used by clinicians and organisations across the globe supporting prescribing in mental health. Over 100 000 copies sold and translated into 19 languages. This marked a significant re-write of the chapter, and content from that rewrite is still evident in subsequent editions over 10 years later.
Choice and Medication – Australian Clinical Reviewer
Australian clinical reviewer for Choice and Medication – widely regarded as the world’s most comprehensive independent resource for patients, carers and professionals on mental health medication choices. Written by mental health pharmacists and, like Maxwell Minds, proudly independent of pharmaceutical industry funding. Penny reviewed content across multiple areas including the VERA (Very Easy to Read) leaflet suite for the Australian context.
SHPA Training Residency Framework – Author
Lead author and developer of Knowledge and Skills component for the SHPA Training Residency Framework for Mental Health – the Society Of Hospital Pharmacists specialist clinical pharmacist 2 year training program through which pharmacists gain formal recognition for advanced practice in mental health pharmacy across Australia. The first graduates are out and thriving in practice.
Education, workshops and public engagements
Developer and facilitator of highly-rated workshops including Who Wants to be a Drug Lord? and My Child Has Been Diagnosed with ADHD – Now What? – the latter developed with Clinical Psychologist Jamila Bailey.
Invited speaker to educators, school counsellors, clinicians and community groups. Author of clinical education resources across paediatric and mental health specialties.
More credentials ↓
NSW Health ADHD Co-Management Project – Lead Pharmacist
Lead pharmacist, NSW Health ADHD co-management project, Hunter New England – designing the medication safety systems, navigating legislation and policy, building clinician confidence, co-designing the model with clinicians, GPs, parents and carers.
Agitation Guidelines Author
Lead author, inpatient management of agitation guidelines for John Hunter Children’s Hospital including the psychiatric unit – invited to present by the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Clinical Excellence Commission.
NSW Statewide Formulary – Expert Advisory Panel
Member, NSW Expert Advisory Panel for statewide formulary development – Quality Use of Medicines committees across the region.
University of Newcastle – Masters Module Author
Wrote the medication module for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Nursing Masters program, University of Newcastle.
Over many years I developed and refined my approach to working with families, carers and patients in complex medication situations – the shared decision making, the difficult conversations, the pharmacotherapy side. Maxwell Minds is that work, now available directly.
“I have known Penny since 2016 and she has always shown a sharp mind with great insight into mental health medicines, coupled with an enquiring and innovative mind, and an impressive overview of treatment modalities.”
Professor Stephen Bazire FRCPharm, MBE
Professor Bazire co-founded Choice and Medication and authored the Psychotropic Drug Directory – one of the most widely used clinical references in mental health pharmacy worldwide.
Shared with permission
HOW I WORK – THE MINDS FRAMEWORK™
Five commitments that shape everything I do.
M Medication optimisation – Not just the right medication
Not just the right medication. The right medication for you – at the right dose, in the right form, monitored in the right way. Treatment tailored to your body, your goals, and your life.
MEDWISE™ is the clinical framework that makes this possible.
I Independent Professional Bound by professional, legal and ethical obligations
My independence is not a positioning statement. As a registered pharmacist I am bound by professional, legal and ethical obligations – patient health and wellbeing first, professional judgement and integrity upheld, conflicts of interest managed transparently.
That means advice shaped by your situation and the evidence. Not by pharmaceutical relationships. Not by the system. Not by referral incentives or funding tied to any outcome.
I work collaboratively with treating teams wherever possible. When advising other health professionals I maintain independent professional judgement within my scope of practice. Cooperation and clear communication produce better outcomes for patients.
But collaboration is in service of care. It does not replace it and it does not come first.
No hospital system. No pharmaceutical ties. No referral incentives. No funding linked to any outcome. My judgement belongs to the patient and the evidence.
N Neuroaffirming – Neurodivergence is not a problem to be fixed
Tired of being misunderstood? Worried about someone not getting it? The exhaustion of masking, or struggling with something that seems so simple – like remembering to take your medication, or making an appointment, or sending that email.
Being different is not an illness. No shame or judgement here – about any question, any issue, any need.
Medication – when it is right – is not about changing who you are. It is about reducing the friction so you can be more fully yourself.
In sessions I draw things out – diagrams to explain complex medication concepts in real time rather than talking at you. Fidgets are available. The way information is delivered is part of the clinical work, not an afterthought.
You do not need a diagnosis to come. Many people arrive questioning, self-identified, or still working out what is going on.
Your experience is real. You are believed.
D Different in a good way – Specialist expertise with time and independence
This is not a standard clinical service and it does not pretend to be. Specialist pharmacist expertise combined with the time, the independence, and the genuine human attention that complex medication care requires. Different by design.
S Safe space, safe medications – Where the unsaid can finally be said
A space where the things that haven’t been said can finally be said – and where the medication picture is approached with care, rigour and expertise. Both matter. Both are always present.
I won’t assume medication is right or wrong without understanding your situation. My role is to give you clear, independent information so the decision is genuinely yours. If you leave still unsure but with a clearer sense of what you are unsure about, that is still progress. Clarity often makes the next step possible.
Everything above starts from one belief: every person deserves to be seen accurately, with their full complexity and their genuine situation. That shapes all of it.
HELP SHAPE MAXWELL MINDS
This service is being built to work for everyone who needs it – not just the people clinical services were originally designed for.
If you have lived experience of navigating medication for ADHD, autism or mental illness – for yourself, a loved one, or as a professional – I’d like to hear from you. I’m looking for people from diverse neurotypes, backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities and genders who want to help make this service genuinely inclusive from the ground up.
This is not a token consultation. It is a real invitation to shape something new.
If that sounds like you, get in touch.
OUTSIDE THE CLINIC
I’m a keen artist, love going on road trips in my teardrop caravan, and am the devoted owner of two cats who I adore. Newcastle is home.
A NOTE ON TRANSPARENCY
I recommend Choice and Medication – an independent, pharmaceutical-industry-free patient medication information platform written by mental health pharmacists like me – because I believe it is one of the best resources of its kind. I secured organisational funding for HNE to access it, and subsequently undertook private contracted review work for the platform. That contract is complete and there is no ongoing financial relationship. I continue to recommend it because it is good, not because I have a stake in it. I have no financial stake in the business.
When you are ready, the first step is a 30-minute introductory session. No referral needed. No pressure.