The ongoing social impacts of the pandemic are profound, and mental health challenges are increasingly common. For many newly diagnosed ADHD adults and those just beginning their discovery journey, it’s an incredibly difficult time. In addition, the stripping away of social supports and coping mechanisms has resulted in a large increase in ADHD discovery, and the medical community has not been able to keep pace with demand: there is a huge gap in access to diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD in BC (waiting lists are long and there are very few clinics that treat adult ADHD), the financial barriers are significant for counselling/medications, and people have vastly different experiences with ADHD depending on how well resourced they are.

OMG, I Have ADHD is intended as a spark, a conduit for community support bolstered by vetted professionals in the field of treatment. As co-hosts of a popular podcast (50,000+ streams and counting) about ADHD, we have received feedback from BC listeners about the lack of care and information available, particularly in the realm of support and peer-led initiatives. If we create a peer-led event and collective for people diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, then they will have access to meaningful social connections along with current knowledge and research from leading experts. Our goal is to host two half day events featuring speakers from the clinical community alongside adults with lived experience to provide a platform and community hub for the neurodivergent community. These events will also act as a conduit and springboard for peer-led support communities to be established in the Lower Mainland with an eye of expanding across BC and eventually Canada. We believe in nothing about us without us, so creating peer-led support groups that are informed by accessibility, compassion, and dignity can act as a powerful agent in creating relationships, busting stigmas, and fostering learning.  

Communty partners:

Santina Mozgiel (Clinical practitioner with Adult ADHD clinic), Dr. Anita Parhar and Dr. Gurdeep Parhar (Adult ADHD Centre in Burnaby)