90% Of Adults With ADHD Are Undiagnosed. More Than 70 Canadian ADHD Awareness Week Activities October 14-20 In 23 BC Cities

Ignoring and stigmatizing ADHD is very costly to taxpayers and families.

90% of adults with ADHD are undiagnosed and untreated.

Dr. Russell Barkley, Monitor on Psychology March 2012, page 70.

Undiagnosed and untreated ADHD is costly to people who have it, their family and work colleagues and society in general.

The BC Medical Association ADHD White Paper estimated the cost of ADHD at half a billion annually to BC taxpayers.

It is actually Billions of dollars yearly. The BCMA underestimated the cost because they only counted the cost of children with ADHD i.e. 18 and under.

The BCMA did not include adults with ADHD (ADHD is 80% genetic) which are far more numerous than children with ADHD, i.e., 19 years to 70, 80 etc. See page 7, 3rd paragraph of the BCMA report

Many medical professional have not been properly trained on diagnosing and treating Adults and children in BC. Some get misdiagnosed with depression or anxiety disorders. Some patients get told their doctor/psychologist/psychiatrist doesn’t “believe” in ADHD as if it was a matter of theology vs. science.

Every major medical, psychological and psychiatric organization say ADHD is real and has serious economically and socially costly impairments to adults and children with ADHD. Here are multiple examples of clinical evidence of ADHD as a real condition vs. beat the child more, and it will magically disappear.

Annual US household income losses due to ADHD were estimated in 2008 at $77 billion, or $8,900 to $15,400 in lost productivity annually per household. In 2007, untreated ADHD was estimated to have cost US society $74.1 billion in additional costs to its health care, education and the justice systems.

Learn more about the economic impacts of undiagnosed and untreated ADHD.

Yet UBC medical school students get a mere one hour of training on ADHD.

The Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group and its partners are raising Awareness about the facts, the myths, the stigma and the social and economic impacts of ADHD.
They will be holding 70+ BC ADHD Awareness activities in 23 BC cites for ADHD Awareness Week October 14-20th.

From West Vancouver, to Delta to Hope, Libraries and bookstores will have ADHD book displays with the brochures of the only two ADHD support groups in BC.

The Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group and CHADD Vancouver, our parent group, the Harvard Adult ADHD Screener Test, and our ADHD Awareness week poster.

A new website BC ADHD has been launched with more information for BCers on the facts, the myths, the stigma and the social and economic impacts of ADHD.

Group members will staff an ADHD information table at The Richmond Brighouse Library Lobby at 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, Friday October 18th, from 3pm to 8pm with information on ADHD and answering questions on ADHD.

Also an information table at The West End Community Center at 870 Denman Street, Vancouver, Saturday October 19th, from 10am to 5pm.

Vancouver was the first city in Canada to declare ADHD Awareness Week in 2011. It has been done nationally declared by Congress in the US for 9 years. Still ignored in Canada at the federal and all provincial levels.

About the Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group

Founded in 2004, the Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group is a peer support group and a forum where information about adult ADHD can be exchanged. It is the only Adult ADHD support group in BC with members from across the Lower Mainland from Whistler to Delta to Mission and is the adult ADD group of the Vancouver chapter of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (CHADD) an international non-profit for the support of children with ADHD, their parents and adults with ADHD.

Contact Information

Pete Quily

Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group Leader and Adult ADHD Coach

BC ADHD

(1) 604-263-6997

pete@bcadhd.com