Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Feb 21, 2017 10:47:47 GMT
Break it all down into different smaller chunks of work. I usually do all the easy tasks first like dealing with post/emails.
Make a list and put all other stuff away so your desk/work area is clear and only start one task at a time.
Take regular short breaks and turn off all distractions and dose up on meds if you are prescribed them!
Obviously if you have deadlines then they need to be done asap even though it will hurt!
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Feb 20, 2017 12:34:06 GMT
Thank you so much for the replies and information. Endymion, were you referred recently? They told me 10 months when I called in January. I chased up my referral last week and discovered it had been sent to the wrong service. They told me they triaged the referral and sent it back to the GP saying that there was no suitable service!!! When I told the lady on the phone about the Sheffield Adult Autism and neurodevelopmental service she had no idea that it existed My GP has now resent the referral to the correct service but with the added wait my anxiety and impatience have kicked in. After years of speculating now ive finally discussed it with my GP and found that she fully supports me being assessed, I just want to know either way. So I've made a private appointment which is a bit of a stretch but hopefully will be worth it. I was referred about 3 years ago now. Very simple process for me. Went to GP, he referred me to the psychiatric/mental health team and then I was seen about 4 months later (admittedly after I got an early appointment due to cancellation ) and then after about 6 months of assessment on MPH I was referred back to GP who agreed to prescribe. Never had any real issues at all getting seen, diagnosed or prescribed the drugs to treat.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Feb 6, 2017 23:33:30 GMT
I live in Sheffield and was referred by my gp straight away and seen by the psych within about 4 months. Straight diagnosis and then treatment. Not a bad word can be said for the treatment I received. First class.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Dec 8, 2016 7:43:18 GMT
No. I always have it at the back of my mind that they might have something like ADHD or other issue that has made them inattentive, discourteous, inconsiderate etc. Even if they don't, they might just be having a really bad day!
I usually just picture my son as them and think how I would hate to see anyone screaming and shouting at him because of his ADHD.
Just make a point of not going there again if I think they have been rubbish in some way.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Nov 29, 2016 14:32:05 GMT
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Post by Endymion on Oct 26, 2016 13:27:48 GMT
Just tell them you will not be doing it over the phone due to the nuances of your individual disability making it extremely difficult to do so.
I suspect they can't force you to do it over the phone if you agree to do it face to face or by other alternative means. If they maintain you must have a telephone assessment, then you insist that they register that you have made a complaint about this process, your inability to do it in this format and that by continuing to proceed by this method they are not complying with their requirements under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments - presuming that given they previously did face to face interviews etc, there's no reason why they cannot any more for exceptional cases.
Remember that if part of your stated disability is not being able to deal with phonecalls etc, then being able to complete a telephone assessment is indeed proof (although we all know it isn't/shouldn't be as it's done under duress) of your capability to do this and can, and probably will be, used to dispute any such assertions made by you.
If you are on good terms with your GP/psych they may well be happy to write a letter confirming your inability to do such an assessment and will act as further evidence to support your stance and that it is, in your case, inequitable to have a telephone assessment.
Good luck!
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 19:37:38 GMT
I would ask your DWP advisor to see if any of the prospective employers are on the Disability Confident scheme. They should be far more accommodating to your needs as they get benefits from the government (I think) for employing people with disabilities etc.
Hope i am not teaching you to suck eggs ...apologies if so.
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 19:20:31 GMT
From the UK.gov website:
Alternative formats You must provide information about the vacancy in alternative formats (eg large print) on request if this is reasonable. You must also accept applications in alternative formats (eg electronically) where possible
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 19:16:39 GMT
I would ask each and every employer who says there is only one way to apply for a job in their organisation what method of payment they will be using to pay the damages awarded to you for the finding of disability discrimination against them.
Bet they soon start accepting suitable alternative job applications.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 12:24:16 GMT
Why the need to explain?
Just tell them that your disability prevents you from doing certain things and what they are asking you to do is one such thing.
They then have to find alternative means of achieving the same result.
My response would be to tell them how they are going to achieve the goal of getting me a job. Come up with a plan of action. Also defeats any argument that you are not cooperating with them.
For instance I would ask them to, in the first instance, contact the employer to ask for an interview on the basis of a CV and no requirement for application - say that disability requires accommodation of such requests. Also request they assist with completion of applications (50% of such forms can be populated with info they hold and takes off some pressure of completing a blank form)
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 11:08:11 GMT
Interesting news article on BBC re DVLA making inappropriate decisions and taking an age to sort: 'Major failings' in DVLA medical fitness to drive cases - www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37703036
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Post by Endymion on Oct 20, 2016 11:05:22 GMT
Your employer's have to make reasonable adjustments to your employment if you have a disability. The problem is, as always the definition of what's 'reasonable'.
If there is a medical reason I. E your own psych/gp advises it is necessary and/or your occupational health consultant appointed by your employers gives similar guidance then I doubt there could be little argument from work that doing what you suggest is not reasonable.
Even without med evidence, and you have genuine concerns, then you should be allowed to have time off.
Essentially, your employers have to prove what you are asking for is unreasonable for them to either accommodate or that what you are requesting is not disability related etc.
That's the legal requirement but whether or not your employers a) know the rules and b) comply with them is another matter though.
If they don't then you will need to go down their grievance policy and ultimately employment tribunal if no resolution - but that would be the extreme worse case scenario.
Also other factors have to be considered E. G responsibility for operating machinery, driving jibs etc and how the meds could affect this.
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Post by Endymion on Oct 16, 2016 16:51:32 GMT
I was listening to Radio 5 when this little gem came on and caught my attention - briefly: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04bwvgj
New test called Braingaze ... (think my son might have done a test similar when diagnosed so I don't know if it is "new" new so to speak):
Don't know whether the test is available to all and sundry and would be used as a full on diagnostic tool without any other input from family, records, psych tests, but sounds promising.
I didn't listen to the whole thing as it came on as I was parking up and needed to hot foot it into work as I was, as always, playing catch-up, so apologies if it the article tells you all this or this is already on the forum somewhere! Guy they were interviewing was scarily similar to me in his situation but then we all are, I suppose, familiar with the joys our wonderful little quirky brains provide us with from time to time.
Now back to work, on a Sunday and in the office, trying to catch up on work whilst all my colleagues are at home
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Post by Endymion on Oct 13, 2016 12:42:57 GMT
Found this little nugget from the GMC website:
Doctors are often worried about prescribing unlicensed medicines as we say that they must take responsibility for the prescription, but of course we expect this whether the medicine is licensed or not. You are responsible for all prescriptions you sign and your decisions and actions when supplying and administering medicines and devices (or when they authorise or instruct others to do so).
Contrary to recent suggestions, GMC guidance does not include reference to any extra personal liability in relation to prescribing unlicensed medicines.
We expect you to carefully consider any treatment that you prescribe, and we expect you to be able to justify your decisions and actions when prescribing, administering and managing medicines regardless of whether they are licensed or unlicensed.
Importantly, prescribing unlicensed medicines will not put your registration at risk any more than other areas of practice covered by our guidance.
(my bold)
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Oct 13, 2016 9:51:56 GMT
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Post by Endymion on Oct 13, 2016 8:09:53 GMT
Unfortunately, I was misdiagnosed in the 70's when I was a kid. Had driven my mother, quite literally, insane and so was referred to a child psychologist. I didn't 'fit' the defined criteria for it back then in the 70s and so just told I was just a bit bouncy etc and my mother should just be a bit better at parenting - after she had been released from the psychiatric unit where she had been sent after her nervous breakdown. Father was, I am told, an alcoholic and he split before I was a few months old. Never met him and probably the provider of my ADHD genes.
I am pretty sure that had I been correctly diagnosed I would not have had the rather car crash relationship issues, I would have a better career path and so on.
So I am acutely aware of the issues that many of us face.
I was diagnosed a couple of years ago when I was 42. My son had just been given a diagnosis and it brought it all back to me and made sense that I probably did have ADHD after all and was referred to a local psych by my GP, diagnosis straight away - I suspect in part due to the diagnosis of my son, and then passed back to my GP who is excellent and carried on prescribing me MPH without any quibble.
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Post by Endymion on Oct 12, 2016 16:43:25 GMT
Whilst I understand your concern at having a number of expert's conflicting opinions on your medical records on the same subject matter, no patient should ever be allowed to have those opinions removed from their records - unless they do not relate to you or are factually incorrect.
The precedent set if patients were allowed to remove records they didn't agree with, no matter how strong their disagreement, would be horrendous. Child abusers (or potential ones), patients with problems which could affect their ability to safely control a vehicle/machinery, convicted murderers seeking parole etc etc may be able to apply to have reports/opinions stricken from their records if this was the case.
Crap in your case, but absolutely necessary.
Going back to my original point, I was more concerned (apologies that this wasn't clearer - trying to do many things at once, as always) with the prescribing of the drugs. All of the adult ADHD drugs are unlicensed as far as I am aware - happy to be proven wrong - and so, from memory, there is absolutely no duty on the GP to prescribe them.
Being a lawyer for a couple of decades, I am acutely aware that litigation in general and clinical negligence cases have increased dramatically and there is now a reluctance by GPs to put themselves in a situation where there may be a potential claim for negligence and/or under greater scrutiny by the regulatory body(s) - not to mention the missive that they have to cut down on prescription/medication costs to the NHS.
So, where there are 2 or more conflicting opinions, I wonder how GP's (presuming that this is not the first time a privately funded diagnosis has been obtained after a negative NHS review) are dealing with the potential conflict and risks it poses to them to prescribe unlicensed medication? It will be very interesting to find out how your GP deals with this.
Apologies if you think this is hijacking your thread and feel free to get it shifted to it's own one if you want.
I really do hope you get the medication BTW.
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Post by Endymion on Oct 12, 2016 9:48:04 GMT
Does anyone know how, in reality, it works in regards to a GP choosing which opinion and prognosis to prefer when they have a number of conflicting expert reports?
From a legal standpoint, any opinion the doctor receives has to be considered and weighed equally - unless there is some reason to favour one experts opinion over another i.e. more qualified/specialised in the field of medicine.
Given that the GP is facing prescribing unlicensed medication, I would think they are going to be under a lot of pressure in choosing which opinion to rely upon.
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Post by Endymion on Oct 3, 2016 20:30:41 GMT
I was 43 when I was diagnosed and I took all of mine down and they were not great shining examples of an A grade student I can tell you!
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Post by Endymion on Oct 1, 2016 15:19:59 GMT
I wouldn't worry too much about ADHD and applying to uni and then working for the NHS.
As Annie has said, your ADHD - if you consider it a disability, cannot be used against you in any way unless it would likely cause you or others to be harmed and there are no reasonable adjustments that can be made to reduce said risk.
I would look and see if any of the Uni's you are thinking of applying to have 'Positive Discrimination' policies. Usually they encourage students with disabilities to apply and guarantee interviews, offer better course options, lower entry grades, funding etc. Same applies to NHS Trusts and how they operate in terms of policies and have a target to meet of employing 'x' number or more people with disabilities.
Thinking about it, a paramedic job is tailor made for ADHD sufferers so I can't imagine you would struggle:
- Fast paced and high intensity workload;
- Never the same workday;
- Lots of stimulus;
Good luck.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Aug 2, 2016 12:47:52 GMT
Brilliant news. Well done
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Post by Endymion on Jul 21, 2016 10:47:28 GMT
Depends on what the interview is really (what job etc) and scheduled for how long. I interview a fair number of people and my thoughts are:
If you were to ask me for a break BEFORE the interview then I would want to know why and I would expect a good answer. "Nerves" is not really a good answer as all candidates are nervous and that's already a mark against you (on the basis you haven't informed them you have a disability). "Gathering your thoughts" is another no-no. Employers usually make you do presentations and interviews to make you think on your feet, judge your capability in regards to decision making, speed of thought and adaptability to certain situations. Giving you time to compose yourself is really counter-productive to that.
You also have to remember that the employer's/interviewer's time is precious to them and they are on a tight schedule to not just see you, but all the other candidates. Elongating your time slot is therefore not going to go down well in all likelihood and you will have less time to put yourself forward (not always a bad thing though!).
Obviously if you have a health issue which would make you disabled under the Equalities Act this would alter the above as they would need to make reasonable adjustments to allow you to be on a level playing filed with the other candidates. Plus they would also have to consider any aspects of your performance that were poor as against whether this was caused by your disability and so unfair to judge you on that.
It's a hard choice. My employers don't know about my ADHD as I am aware of the lack of awareness and stigma still attached to it, despite all the advances.
If you really need a break I would just engineer one i.e. needing the toilet, feeling under the weather and need a minute etc.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on May 24, 2016 13:50:20 GMT
Seems like in some cases a much higher dose might be affective. Found an article where a kid was taking between 4800 - 6000mg a day and was physically ok when reviewed: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/769424
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on May 12, 2016 16:46:50 GMT
ADHD meds, for me at least, are essentially anti-Viagra.
Avoid them like the plague if little old Cupid is getting ready to loose some arrows...
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Post by Endymion on May 5, 2016 16:24:02 GMT
I have a regime of 3 x 30mg of MPH a day. 100mg is the daily limit advised by NICE I believe. I am quite a large bloke though - 6ft1, and so I suspect the lower doses did not have the required effect because of my size.
Have to have a break now and again as that amount of crap in your body clearly isn't going to assist long term but the benefits definitely outweigh the problems - mainly only loss of appetite and some sleep loss if taken too late!
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Post by Endymion on May 2, 2016 11:33:44 GMT
Constantly happens to me and explains fully why I have needed to be in work to catch up over the last 3 days when all of my colleagues have been out with their friends, family etc.
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Post by Endymion on Apr 6, 2016 9:32:46 GMT
Sorry to hear about your issues. Sounds like you and others are victims of harassment at work and have a weak manager who does not deal with it effectively. Have a look at the link below and it should help you with dealing with it, getting your employers to deal with it and as a last resort, how to have the matter sorted at a higher level i.e. employment tribunal. www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=797Essentially, if your co-workers have any complaints about you, your employer needs to tell you what they are and allow you to respond to these allegations. If they don't and also allow your co-workers to continue to harass you then they are breaking the law. Hope this helps and keep your chin up.
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Post by Endymion on Mar 20, 2016 17:36:26 GMT
Join a job agency and get them to fill in your applications for you once they have taken your information and details down.
There are usually a number of job agencies that will cover the areas you want to work in.
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Endymion
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Post by Endymion on Jul 14, 2015 14:17:13 GMT
I think there is a similar app for android phones/tablets called Twilight.
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Post by Endymion on Mar 5, 2015 16:32:18 GMT
My understanding is that if you are caught driving with any of the various drugs used to treat ADD/ADHD and so on, it will be an offence if:
- You are not prescribed with that drug (given they are for the most part, controlled substances) and/or;
- Your driving is deemed to be impaired whether prescribed or not.
I think it is a bad amendment to the law and knee jerk reaction. I can understand that some drugs must be illegal to use and then drive - same as alcohol at a certain level.
However, the 'deemed impaired' is open to a lot of abuse. For instance, I get stopped and I test positive for Medikinet. I prove that I am prescribed this drug and my levels are within the prescribed amount. Should be ok. But what if the police officer then suggests I was driving badly and so he believes that, irrespective of the medical exemption, I am committing an offence?
With alcohol, impairment is usually proven by medical consensus being that after a certain limit, your ability to drive will be reduced to a level where it is reasonably foreseeable that you may cause an accident. As such, there is very rarely any argument from the Defendant that they were not impaired if the breathalyser/blood tests results come back over the legal limit.
With this new rule, you can be charged and then you set off down a very burdensome road to prove that your driving was not impaired, as a result of the medication. The test for impairment seems to be the Field Impairment Test i.e. what they used to do in the 1960's.
Look up the test. One of the parts of it is the Romberg test. Essentially you have to estimate the passage of time. Don't know about you but I reckon ADHD'ers might struggle with that when being asked by a police officer in front of the public on a busy noisy road to do a test!
Can just imagine someone with ODD and ADD being pulled over by the police and told that despite them proving they are legally fine to be medicated, they are being asked to go through a number of tests which might result in a driving offence if they fail.
The kicker being that if you refuse to take the test, that in itself is an offence.
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