I have often said that without my mom fighting for me to be able to read, I would have never graduated from high school. She asked the school system to do better for me than it did for her. Her dyslexia is not as bad as mine and she knew how hard she worked to read and write. She was terrified I might never learn any of it. My dad quietly supported us behind the scenes allowing us to live off one income so she could pour everything into our education. Their passion and determination saved all three of us kids’ lives.
I was reminded of this today because I just came from an informational lunch-in meeting of A.D.A.M.
Within minutes of arriving, I was reminded of the value and incredibleness of parents, doctors, friends, and accessibility experts. I would not be here without them in my life. I am as successful as I am because of their passion for helping others and wanting to make a difference.
My head is truly swimming with new information about ADHD. For 90 minutes, Lee the president, co-founder, and parent of a now adult ADHD person shared all of the latest information she has collected or learned from webinars. She is amazing and her gift of sharing that information is incredible.
The main topic was the upcoming APSARD Guidelines. American Professionals Society for ADHD and Related Disorders has been working towards this for years and they are months away from its release. CLICK HERE to read more about the APSARD Guidelines.
If I was not sitting in this meeting listening to doctors, student needs advisors, coaches, and parents deep dive into this topic, I would only have a tiny idea that this was happening.
It took me a bit to wrap my head around why this really matters and how it will actually affect my clients. What it gets down to is continuity of care, standardized care, and education within the medical system primarily. Putting this in place can lead to other services that ADHD persons could really use but only people able to pay out of pocket right now can afford.
THANK YOU
To all of the people who have stepped up to help the neurodiverse community.
As the group talked about standards of care and other things, I realized that without the guidelines in place, parents have been on their own to figure all this out. The amazing thing is they have and that is why they have formed local and national groups to continue to pass this information along, because without that every person is trying to do it on their own.
As the meeting wrapped up, I was awe-struck by the passion of the people in the room and how in a middle-sized community in central Minnesota something so great can exist.
I highly recommend you sign up for A.D.A.M.’s newsletter. Lee does a really good job of passing along good information as fast as she can.
This is also a reminder if you are looking to learn more about ADHD make sure to check and see if you don’t have an organization like this near you.