Advocacy begins at home: establishing a support

1
Advocacy begins at home establishing a support
advocacy group for parents of children with ADHD
in Austria

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Verein ADAPT a support advocacy group for
parents of children with ADHD in Austria

• 1998 Awareness of ADHD in Austria virtually zero
  - Workshop in Vienna - Dr. Marina Peña (Costa
  Rica)
• 1999 Interdisciplinary ADHD conference in
  Salzburg - Founding and presentation of ADAPT
• - First attempts at overcoming lack of
  knowledge

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Aims of Verein ADAPT, according to its statutes

• ADAPT - non-profit-making - founded to
• serve families, educators and therapists
  confronted with ADHD and SLD
• hold meetings and lectures
• compile and disseminate information and
  scientific material, also via Internet
• provide support for ADHD SLD problems in
• educational, social health fields

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ADAPT Members

• Parents, foster parents, grandparents of
  children, adolescents, young adults with ADHD
• Educators
• Psychologists
• Child psychiatrists, paediatricians
• Therapists
• Adults with ADHD diagnosis or suspected ADHD

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ADAPT Agenda (1)

• ADAPT telephone
• ADAPT website (www.adapt.at)
• ADAPT newsletter
• E-mail article service
• ADAPT library
• - books
• - videos, DVDs audiotapes

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ADAPT Agenda (2)

• Meetings
• Members (speaker/video/discussion bookstall
  library)
• Parent/educator
• Adults
• Congresses,
• international
• gatherings

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ADAPT Agenda (3)

• Education parents, educators
• Speakers from Austria, Germany
• Seminars/lectures ADAPT members schools,
  educational authorities, specific groups of
  educators/MDs
• Further education need to heighten awareness of
  mental health professionals
• Parent training
• Seminars, symposia, lectures speakers from
  ADAPT, Austria, Germany, USA

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ADAPT Agenda (4)

• Lobbying
• - Lobby4Kids (www.lobby4kids.at)
• - Vienna health insurance fund slow
  release
• medication for ADHD
• International Research ADHD Profile Study 2002
• Role-model to others initiation of further
  education, setting-up of meetings

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ADAPT Agenda (5)

• Small-scale studies by ADAPT members
• - ADHD Parent Questionnaire Pilot study
• (Erika Pöchhacker, 2001)
• - Alternative Therapies (Renate
  Grimmlinger,
• 2003)
• Investigations dubious therapies, spurious
  qualifications, hostile attitudes to ADHD
• ADHD and blue and
• green algae Dipl.
  ADS-Trainer awarded by
• 
  private learning institute for
• 
  thesis and expensive course
• Indigo children
• Austrian Hippocratic Society Real help instead
  of Ritalin

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ADAPT Agenda (6)

• Education system
• - Contact educational authorities,
  schools
• offering flexible curricula
• - Protest cuts in numbers of educators
• Media (radio and TV programmes, print media)
• - Need to put misperceptions right,
  portray
• disorder accurately, combat stigma of
  being
• labeled ADHD
• Theses and extended essays
• - Resources for universities, vocational
  colleges
• and Austrian school leaving examination
  

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ADAPT in the future

• Official umbrella organisation for ADHD in
  Austria
• Lobbying for changes in school laws Austria
• has Furtherance of Special Educational
  Needs for behavioural problems, but
  nothing regarding how this integration is
  to be achieved in class.
• ADHD Day or Screening Day (as in Belgium or
• USA resp.)
• Outdoor gatherings for families with ADHD
• children
• An office and paid employees!

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THE ART OF ADVOCACY

• Being an effective advocate for your own child
  or for any children with specific learning
  difficulties requires knowledge, skill, contact
  with law-makers and lobbyists, and work with
  ones childs school to address the childs
  specific needs and locate appropriate resources.
  
• 
  By empowering
• 
  your teenager to
• 
  self-advocate, youll
• 
  help him/her to
• 
  develop the skills
• 
  necessary for
• 
  success in learning
• 
  and life.
• 
  www.schwablearning.org
  
•