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Pilot takes collaborative approach

Those involved in a new clinic serving young adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder on the North Shore is aimed at determining how the health care system can best support those with the condition as well as the clinicians working to ser

Those involved in a new clinic serving young adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder on the North Shore is aimed at determining how the health care system can best support those with the condition as well as the clinicians working to serve them.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Adult ADHD Clinic was officially launched in September and operates out of the HOpe Centre at Lions Gate Hospital.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Adult ADHD Clinic takes a collaborative approach to managing ADHD (a neurological, biological, developmental disorder that often runs in families), in young adults ages 17-35. By targeting young adults, the program seeks to offer support during what is commonly a time of major transition, which can exacerbate ADHD symptoms, negatively impacting things like education, career, finances and relationships if not managed effectively.

“For some reason this whole idea of ADHD in adults has been a hard one to get clinicians to pick up on in some cases. More often than not, and hopefully this will change but, people tend to have the more prominent issues addressed and then they continue to suffer and feel like failures and have ongoing issues because people aren’t understanding and recognizing the underlying problem. But then the opposite is also true that individuals with ADHD are usually highly creative, highly persistent and highly able to think outside the box in wonderful ways. It’s a whole way of looking at the world that’s so fabulous, so if we can help these people contribute more to society, we’re all going to really benefit from this because they’re an amazingly resilient group of individuals,” says Dr. Elisabeth Baerg Hall, the project’s medical lead.

The clinic is currently operating as a pilot project and patients find their way there via referral from their family doctor.

Services include assessment and diagnosis, education, treatment, skill development and ongoing monitoring.

Clinic staff includes a nurse, therapist and psychiatrist, as well as some administrative supports and exists within the structure of the HOpe Centre’s outpatient programs.

“This clinic is unique because it’s a public-private partnership,” says Baerg Hall.

Its launch was made possible through the James Family Foundation, which approached the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation out of an interest in offering financial support.

“They have been visionaries and very committed to seeing that adults with ADHD are provided with services within the public health system,” says Baerg Hall.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Adult ADHD Clinic is the only free-standing, self-contained adult ADHD clinic in the public health care system in Canada, she says.

“What we’re trying to do is to demonstrate both value and, the need is fairly obvious, but we’re trying to also show that individuals who are served within the system do well and that it’s a good use of the system’s resources.”

Those involved with the clinic are also attempting to show the benefit of collaboration with family doctors as ADHD is a condition that shows up most frequently in their offices, rather than those of psychiatrists or other specialists.

“It’s something that family doctors could do really well to manage over the long term and many actually do. This idea of collaborating very closely with family doctors helps with our model,” says Baerg Hall.

The clinic works with patients on a short-term basis and sees staff work closely with family doctors as care is administered (for example, drug dose changes, or the introduction of various therapeutic approaches).

Eventually patients are sent back to their family doctors.

“But if the family doctor says eight months later, ‘You know, they just lost their job and things aren’t going very well, what do you recommend I do?’ Then we can take them back again and work with them for short periods of time. It’s not like they have to go through that whole big referral process again. We’re trying to be more dynamic, flexible and approachable within the system,” says Baerg Hall.

Additional funding is being sought to continue as well as expand the clinic. Donations can be forwarded to the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation.

lghfoundation.com