CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

ADHD forum provides insight, information

Daily Record, The (Wooster, OH) - 11/2/2015

WOOSTER -- Attendees at an ADHD (Attention Deficit or Hyperactivity Disorder) forum held at the Wayne County Public Library in Wooster no doubt came away with helpful insights into diagnosis and treatment, answers to common questions and encouragement about dealing with the disorder. An adult whose own life has been impacted by ADHD and a mother of a child with ADHD were part of the panel.

Counseling Center clinician Jim Foley led the Monday meeting with "how to know (ADHD) when you see it and what to do about it," attempting to illustrate with exercises they could try problems associated with ADHD, such as impulse control, hyperactivity and "how challenging it can be to hold things in your head."

A diagnosis is made "when you have a lot of (ADHD) symptoms together -- not just one," Foley said.

The diagnostic protocol "can often be a little frustrating," Cleveland Clinic pediatrician Adam Keating acknowledged, as well as "time-consuming" for people "reaching out for help. I do realize it can be frustrating, but it's important to do it right.

"My role oftentimes is medication," he said, but only after coming up with a definitive diagnosis, made more difficult by other problems combined with or appearing to be ADHD. About 30 percent have "another diagnosable disorder."

In prescribing one of a variety of medications available, trial and error is involved in finding the right one for a particular patient. Dosage is another decision that must be made, Keating said, noting, the child being treated must be an active participant in evaluating a medication's effectiveness versus its side effects.

"We're with the kids when the medication is supposed to be working,"said Denise Rader, an intervention specialist with Green Local Schools, who added, if it "takes away their personality or they are not eating, then it is not the right (medication)."

Even after appropriate medication is administered, "there is still work to be done," Foley said, pointing out the role of behavioral intervention.

The medicine gave her now 9-year-old daughter "a tool," said Amber Opliger, to be "more successful" in reaching goals, such as participation in extracurricular activities in which, before being treated for ADHD, she "had become a distraction. She wasn't a part of the group."

Tracy Bolyard was not put on medication as a child, but as an adult sought help for ADHD because "it had started to affect my family," she said, describing herself as "very impulsive."

"Therapy and medication work together," Bolyard said, explaining how she "had to learn to schedule things."

Parkview Elementary School second-grade teacher Jamie Morris outlined intervention techniques she can use to help children who may be struggling with ADHD, noting, "One child needed time to pull his hoodie up," in order to block out the classroom and all of its stimulation. "We came up with times during the day he could do that."

She also helps children with checklists and cues to begin learning to monitor their own behavioral responses to the environment.

Foley noted a balance between "designing accommodations" allowing them to be successful in the short-term to "practicing the skills" for them to be successful in the long run.

The forum ended on a note of hope, with Cameron Maneese, executive director of Wayne County Family and Children First Council, as one of the people stepping up to look at the benefits of ADHD, which she said isn't always a deficit.

Many jobs, for example, Maneese said, such as an EMT, require "the skill sets of those who may have an ADHD predisposition."

Sensitivity to one's surroundings is also a creative asset, according to Maneese.

Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230, or lhall@the-daily-record.com. She is @lindahallTDR on Twitter.