Health / New ADHD support group being explored
A MEETING is being held next week to gauge interest in setting up a local support group for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
It comes off the back of a visit from the Scottish ADHD Coalition last month.
The first meeting is set for upstairs in Mareel on Tuesday 21 April from 6pm to 7.30pm.
It is initially being led by Ability Shetland team leader Stephanie Bain, but she said if the group gets up and running it could be independent of the charity.
It comes amid a huge rise in the number of people being diagnosed with ADHD, not just in Shetland but across the country too.
A key part of this is said to be an increased awareness around the condition and its symptoms.
There has been a near 900 per cent increase in referrals in Shetland between 2021 and 2024. As of 24 November last year, there were 367 people in Shetland on the waiting list for ADHD assessment.
The NHS describes ADHD as a group of behavioural symptoms that can include difficulty concentrating and paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. People with a diagnosis can receive medication.
Bain said there has been a Facebook group in place for a couple of years for local people connected with ADHD – be it those with a diagnosis, people waiting for one, or parents.
She said the idea of a support group is something that is “really, really needed”.
“With the awareness nowadays, a lot of folk are on the waiting list for diagnosis,” Bain said, “and I think it’s the whole peer support thing as well.”
She said the term ADHD gets thrown about a lot, and people may laugh and blame behaviour on “my ADHD” – but for many people the condition is no joke, and can be debilitating.
Bain – who is on the waiting list herself – said around 40 people attended a conference held with the Scottish ADHD Coalition last month.
This included representatives from the NHS, council and the third sector, as well as folk with lived experience.
“It was really, really good, and the buzz…folk were really engaging together and speaking together about their own experiences of ADHD maybe in their classroom, or in their surgeries or in employment,” Bain said.
“I thought well, l want to keep that momentum going.”
Support via a new group could take the form of things like youth groups, training for parents and adults with ADHD, peer-to-peer support and information and signposting.
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