Posted
Closed
Commitment: Long-term
Connection method: Virtual
Open to Provincial Region
Posted
Volunteer Opportunity
Have you watched adults struggle to get diagnosed and treated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? First Nations Health Authority Virtual Health Clinic physicians want to be better educated to do this well. The organization also wants to design and offer an Executive Functioning Skills group for patients. Your knowledge will help ensure that we do not miss gaps in care and that we design our interventions in a good way.
Lead Organization/Department
First Nations Health Authority, Virtual Clinic
Aim
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) Virtual Services program and partners are funding a project aimed at enhancing the skills of FNHA’s in-house physicians to successfully identify and treat ADHD in adults. This is a crucial need for Indigenous patients, and many physicians have expressed a desire for more education in this area.
We wish to engage Indigenous patient partners who have witnessed the difficulties of those seeking diagnosis and treatment to ensure we understand the nuances of patients’ experiences so we can address Adult ADHD in a good way. The two patient partners will join our Advisory Group as we prepare for both the physician education phases and then the treatment skills group phase.
Level of Engagement
This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.
Eligibility
Open to Indigenous patient partners across the province who:
• Are familiar with untreated Adult ADHD and have watched others struggle to get a diagnosis and treatment. They may have also seen local or physician resistance to medical treatment. The patient partners do not need to have ADHD themselves
• Are comfortable attending online meetings via Zoom
• Are comfortable sharing their experiences
If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Patient Partner Commitments, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Cassy Mitchell.
Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 2
• Date and Time: Meetings to be scheduled the end of May and mid June. The group will then reassemble late summer/early fall 2023 (exact dates/times to be determined)
• Location: Online meetings via Zoom
• Commitment: 12 months, with the possibility of an extension
Reimbursement
Recognition for patient partner time will be provided according to FNHA organizational policies.
Background
Since our inception at the start of COVID, FNvirtual clinic has received many requests for Adult ADHD assessments. Physicians are traditionally poorly trained to identify and treat this and the “gold standard”, CADDRA, which lays out the “proper” way to do this assumes a great deal of priviledge (for example – report cards from elementary school are required). In addition, traditional education is for “uncomplicated ADHD” which is rare in our patients who arrive with many other difficulties including trauma making diagnosis difficult. Many physicians have requested support and education. Also, there are not many executive functioning skills groups for patients and none that we know of are “Indigenized” – we wish to create such a group.
The advisory group will consist of project team staff, First Nations virtual physicians, an Elder and two patient partners.
