Aligned on ADHD Sweepstakes: Win a Tracto App Subscription!

8 Comments: Aligned on ADHD Sweepstakes: Win a Tracto App Subscription!

1. The greatest barrier to coordinated ADHD care — across all practitioners, educators, and caregivers — right now for us would probably be that providers are stretched thin. It’s tough to get an appt when needed, so things often change before my child’s issues can be addressed with detail.

2. Being pregnant with 3rd child and having adhd myself as well as my 6 yr old. Almost everything is difficult. Trying to keep track of everything. I didn’t get diagnosed until age 39 so it’s been a struggle my entire life but this is another level.

3. The hardest thing is trying to communicate now much my hormones affect my symptoms when it seems like no one really understands that.

4. Trying to keep track of all the medications and different tools and tips we used and when we tried them and what worked best for him.

5. greatest barrier: Remembering appointments and being on time. I am constantly losing track of the paper or app I wrote it in and miss it because I forget to call and askk them again
   Greatest help: My therapist & Doc have a text reminder system that sends me a text the day before so I’m more likely to remember (but I’ve still missed it a few times.. Thankfully they are nice and understand)
   As far as my college professors go the disabilities office let’s them know and makes it easier to talk to them about it if I need assistance on a project or assignment

6. At this point, our biggest barrier is money. Although Ontario has a wonderful health care model for which I am very grateful, services for mental health and brains seems to have been left out during its creation. To access therapy for my children, I must pay out of pocket, which is very cost-prohibitive.

7. The biggest barrier I have found while Desperately trying to find professional support for my husband is Covid. He’s been self managing his ADHD for more than a decade. Like many others, Covid has exasperated his symptoms making him more anxious than I’ve ever seen him, and it’s pushing into the realm of depression now. On our path to revisiting professional support over the past year we have not been able to get any help from anyone who specializes in ADHD because they are overwhelmed with new patients (therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, etc). He finally agreed to meeting our family Dr to hopefully try medication again. I’m concerned because he is not an ADHD specialist but we’re desperate for help. It seems like Covid has exasperated everyone with ADHD and there’s just not enough help for adults.

8. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and I am getting my daughter evaluated next month (for the second time). She was in 5th grade last year, and with COVID was virtual for a significant part of the school year. I had recognized that she mirrored many of the traits that I possess that I have learned are due to my ADHD, but at that time I wasn’t diagnosed and thought she might have just learned my bad habits. Anyways, fast-forward to my diagnosis, and I decided that I wanted to get her evaluated. I mentioned it to her school, the school psychologist did a 30 minute observation of her in an in-person math class and in her report said that she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I had an appointment at an integrated practice with a family practitioner, and she basically said she doesn’t have ADHD, but needs to avoid inflammatory foods, get more physical activity, and take a boatload of supplements. While I don’t doubt that these things could help, I feel like she needs a second, and more thorough, opinion. Anyway, we have her scheduled for a more in depth evaluation with a neuropsychologist, and currently I share the tips and tricks that I’ve found help me with her.

   TL;DR I think the greatest barrier in our situation, so far, has been that I don’t feel that my daughter’s evaluation was taken seriously, or thorough enough.