A question for any neurodiverse people working in advocacy/social work type jobs

[Havingkittens]

A bit of a niche question, maybe...

I'm looking to change career over the coming years and one of the things I was looking at was advocacy work, or something similar. I have ADHD and wondering if I also have aspects of dyslexia, which means that I can struggle with reading through large documents, and also following and retaining information in long meetings. Realistically speaking, I'd love to find out from anyone working in this field, especially who may have similar struggles, whether these are hurdles that can be worked around?

Also, to add insult to injury, I am menopausal which has brought the added joy of suddenly forgetting vocabulary or how to speak like the articulate person I used to be. I'm hoping that in a scenario where I am eventually working with information and situations that I have learned about and am familiar with, this will be negated.

I'd love to hear any feedback from anyone with similar struggles.

I don’t have the struggles you mention but you do have to be very focussed in social work. There is a lot of complex information to process and work through, often at a fast pace as situations are dynamic and also court work if you do children and families.

In advocacy you are the ‘voice’ of the person so have to assimilate complex or detailed information and impart it in a way the user understands so they can make a choice/decision.

Thanks for your reply. I suspected this would be the case, particularly for social work.

I wondered whether in advocacy work there was more opportunity to process and prepare cases rather than dynamic, on the spot. For example, being already prepared by becoming familiar and fluent in appropriate policies and options in the field that you're working in. Making notes/recordings in meeting and then being able to prepare a case. That kind of thing?

I understand that advocacy is being a person's voice to communicate their needs. I have always been very articulate and good at putting things into writing, I just have a slower processing speed due to my neurodiversity and now, with menopause, sometimes need to take a moment to get my words together. I'm just hoping to do some research to find out it this is a viable career choice for me and whether there are ways to effectively work around my own challenges.