The ADHD Resource Hub
Introducing the ADHD Resource Hub!
As someone with ADHD I feel I can say proudly - heck don’t we love a side project!
Something that I have been slowly creating alongside building my creative art therapy business, Wanna Art About It, is the ADHD Resource Hub!
The ADHD Resource Hub will be a collection of information, such as research, articles, and tools, all related to ADHD. The goal of it is to be a library, a hub, of links to information about ADHD.
The process/journey/absolute slog of navigating the Australian healthcare system to seek an assessment, diagnosis and support for ADHD is frankly - a shitshow.
Not sure what I’m talking about? This article from SBS News summarising the findings from the Senate’s inquiry into ADHD captures it well.
That is just the part of the journey that involves seeking an assessment. If you are lucky enough to get through years-long waiting lists, afford an assessment, and then receive a diagnosis from a psychiatrist, what comes next?
There is so much information relating to ADHD online. Some websites are great; the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association have published evidence-based factsheets for clinicians and individuals with lived experience of ADHD, and the ADHD Foundation in Australia has a great list of education and support services. Some information online, however, is not so great. Actually, it’s the opposite of great. This ranges from information and advice that is significantly out of date to misinformation presented with the best intentions to genuinely dangerous pseudo-scientific advice fuelled by wellness culture.
When I first received my ADHD diagnosis, I was given a letter that included two book recommendations and the advice that I should find an ADHD-friendly psychologist. That was it.
It is possibly a terrible metaphor—I don’t drive—but it was kind of like I was given the keys to a car but had no idea where the heck it was parked. Actually, it was like I was given a set of keys but didn’t know what they unlocked.
So I did what many do - I googled. And I read. And I googled. And I listened to audiobooks and I found communities online and I just kept searching for information. I was in what I call sponge mode - where my brain just inhales and spits out information, not unlike a Kirby.
I couldn’t keep up with all the information I found, so I started collating links and recommendations in a Google spreadsheet. As I became more confident disclosing my diagnosis, I began to have conversations with people at various stages of the same journey as I. Conversations that nearly always ended with a recommendation to a link or resource I had found, hastily scribbled down on a piece of paper or linked in a chat. Next came a google doc that explained the diagnostic process within the Australian healthcare system - specifically the differences between an assessment from a psychologist or psychiatrist in regards to accessing medication and the different referrals and medicare item numbers when seeing a psychiatrist. All of a sudden, it went from a spreadsheet to a Google Drive that was shareable and accessible to anyone.
And now, it’s time for an ADHD Hub—a home for all of those remarkable resources out there—to help people reach them quickly and easily and ensure that they access them via the people who created them.
This Hub will be free to access. To assist with navigating so much information, it will include some general guidance and summaries and will also feature a section for people to submit resources that they come across, allowing it to grow and stay relevant as time goes on.