AIBU to think this BBC response to complaints about the ADHD exposed programme on Panorama is inadequate

[waronadhd]

disclaimer: I am one of the people who has complained.

BBC recently responded to complaints made about the episode of Panorama called ADHD Private Clinics Exposed, where a journalist got diagnosed with ADHD by three private clinics, but not by an NHS assessment done by a consultant.

Their response:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaint/panoramaprivateadhdclinicsexposed

AIBU to think this is not good enough? They sent a generic response to a much-complained about programme, and did not address my main gripes with it, which is about factually misrepresenting the NHS.

As mentioned by others, NHS Tees, NHS Esk, and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation all say that an adult ADHD assessment can take between 1-2 hours. Meanwhile North West London NHS Foundation Trust says an assessment can up to 90 minutes. This is not 3 hours, as the programme claims is what is necessary for a good assessment, implying that private clinics fall short of a target that is standard in the NHS.

The BBC also love to mention high rates of diagnosis in the private sector, but there are NHS clinics with much higher rates of positive diagnoses (95% at one clinic for example). Panorama is claiming that this programme has not resulted in any additional stigma for ADHD sufferers, but I don't think this is true at all. There have already been stories online of shared care being withdrawn.

In some parts of the country (Yorkshire for example) you cannot even get assessed for ADHD as an adult at the moment, unless you are acutely in danger of self-harm or harming others. This includes scenarios involving children with ADHD ageing out of childhood services and suddenly losing access to the medication they rely on when reaching 18.

This programme had the potential to highlight all the issues and failures in care that are happening in the UK regarding adult ADHD, in both the private sector and the NHS. Instead it presented a biased report of shoddy private clinics and an exemplary NHS service that is simply a bit overstretched, giving rise to even more stigma and negative attention to a disorder which is under diagnosed in women as is. I think it's depressing that the response to the complaint talks about people not enjoying the programme, completely ignoring the questions about factual accuracy and potential damage caused.

We can thank Freudian thinking and Watson's behaviorism, and other ideas that are part of our common knowledge, for making us believe that behavior problems are learned.

Imo, it’s not just that - many people seem to believe that naughty children could control themselves, if they tried. It’s a matter of free will; rather than determined by the biology of the brain and punishment will teach them to behave better! They really can’t comprehend that people with ADHD are impulsive and don’t even think about punishment before they act! Too often, it’s seen as a behavioural problem when it’s executive function deficits - nobody seems to see those?

ITA that this program would make some employers think any diagnosis is dodgy; and there’s no need to make reasonable adjustments!

Maybe you should watch it since it didn't do anything like that 🙄

Estimates of prevalence of ADHD in society have always been around the 4-5% marker.

There is nowhere near 4% of people with a diagnosis. Absolutely nowhere near that. So if the 4-5% figure is true, then the increase in people seeking diagnosis could simply be increased awareness, these are all the people who have previously been missed.

I got diagnosed before the current wave, about 7 years ago, but I never would have sought out diagnosis if it were not for posts on mumsnet - saying it like that makes it sound like I just read posts on MN and decided I must have ADHD, but actually what happened was more like this:

I struggled in various areas of life for probably over 10 years, from my mid teens to my mid twenties. Had recurring thoughts of "What's WRONG with me?!" "Why am I so useless?" Kept querying depression but it didn't fit because while I knew that thinking "I'm useless" "Nobody likes me" "I can't achieve anything" were probably depressive thoughts, they were also backed up by a whole load of actual incidents which I could point to as evidence that they were literally true. Kept trying to make change, didn't understand why I could never stick with anything.

ADHD never occurred to me because I thought that it was something about hyperactivity and attention - two issues I've never really had problems with. But I was seeking answers about what my issue could be and/or had tried to put strategies in place to mitigate everything (separately) multiple times, so was getting a good handle on where my difficulties lay.

It wasn't my own post on MN that alerted me to the fact there's an "inattentive subtype" but someone else's, I think about struggling with housework and admin, something like that. Anyway, someone linked to the wikipedia description and it was like reading a list of everything I was struggling with all at once. That made me go wait, really?? This can all be linked? And it's a type of ADHD? I'd simply had no idea that what I was experiencing were symptoms of that disorder, but as soon as I did, it made perfect sense to go and get assessed for it.

And I think that shift in awareness is happening a lot. Most people a few years ago had the idea that ADHD is about hyperactivity and not being able to pay attention. But most people now understand that it can also affect things like organisation, time management, persistence with habits and goals, propensity to addiction (including "harmless" addictions like caffeine, nicotine, binge eating, internet addiction, that many people would not even think of as in the same class as drugs or alcohol). Is it any wonder that people are starting to recognise themselves or somebody they know in this different description?

@HelloShitty123 I think the fact that they obtain a diagnosis for just a random person that doesn't have it, is enough to say that it is definitely mocking ADHD as a serious health issue. I'm sure if presenters went on TV to show how easy it was to get diagnosed with something more socially acceptable like PTSD, then there would quite rightly be uproar.

But we know why there's an increase.. people are more aware of the issues due to more available information about them. We have thousands of medical information and resources available at our fingertips now. Whereas 50 years ago, you would have to rely on a single doctors opinion which would depend vastly on the individual cases they had seen for themselves. Most importantly too, the stigma about these sort of things have drastically improved over the years which has prompted many to not feel like they have to suffer in silence.
On top of that the rise in females being diagnosed with autism and adhd has seen a massive rise, it equates to a large amount of the overall rise in people being diagnosed.

While I don’t believe that ADHD etc were invented to fuel a drug market, I do think that we need to start questioning why there is such an increase of ADHD/autism etc in society.

I went to a workshop with Tony Attwood, a leading expert on Asperger’s syndrome, probably over 20 years ago. He said the official incidence of Asperger’s in boys was 10:1 that in girls; but he believed the real incidence was more like 4:1, and that for every 1 in a 100 children in schools diagnosed with Asperger’s, there was another one undiagnosed.

Autism, ADHD and even heart attacks have always been defined by how they present in males - when they present differently in females. Drug trials were mainly conducted on white males and the results extrapolated on women, but smaller - without taking into account their different biology. So it’s obvious, if professionals only looked for the male presentation; then the incidences of all these conditions were lower, because females were really being excluded.

Nobody says heart attacks in women are made up, so why is it different for ND conditions and everyone is asking why the incidence has gone up?

Yes it’s the whole know better, do better thing isn’t it?

that said - in the 80s, my school teacher held my hand any playtime I felt bad or wet myself, in the 90s my history teacher let me work in his office in break time. I skipped lunch and nobody noticed and I got by. I never did ASC or breakfast club or holiday club as my mum didn’t work.

we expect more from kids these days,
much more. And most cope and some get
diagnosed.

There are several reasons.

1.Better awareness and understanding.

2.Acknowledgment that it presents differently in girls/women and successfully diagnosing them.

1. Not beating or locking kids up for the displayed behaviours. Not institutionalising people , especially women, for being different.

1. Genetics. Mostly because of number 3, people (and somewhat 1) people are free and able to have children , which in turn may have ADHD themselves. People that before would've been locked up, or ostracised, or not seen as a good prospect for marriage, or dead in a ditch /homeless due to self medicating (drugs , alcohol etc)

There's an increase in allergies,asthma, children wearing glasses etc. Do you question those too and wonder WHY ?