from uneasiness to integration raffaele d’errico aifa onlus national president aifa onlus national...
TRANSCRIPT
From uneasiness to integration
From uneasiness to integration
Raffaele D’ErricoRaffaele D’Errico
AIFA Onlus National PresidentAIFA Onlus National President
Italian Association of ADHD FamiliesItalian Association of ADHD Families
AIFA onlus
goals goals
To give “voice” to ourselves, parents of ADHD children, to tell our experiences in order to help people understand what it really means to live with an ADHD child in the family.
IItalian Association of talian Association of AADHD FamiliesDHD Families OnlusOnlus
AIFA onlus
who is AIFA? who is AIFA?www.aifa.it/associazione.htm
A no profit Organization that aims only to social solidarity, information and scientific diffusion regarding the field of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, which expresses itself in a project called………...
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”www.aifa.it/storia.htm
october 20th 2001…october 20th 2001…
…"Parents for Parents" project is introduced to the Holy Pope for the first time on October 20th 2001, at Saint Peter Square, Rome and broadcasted by the main Italian TV Channel “RAI 1”.…
AIFA onlus
www.aifa.it/storia.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To create a net of parents willing to listen and help those who find themselves in trouble.
To coordinate and encourage contacts between families with the ADHD problem.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To inform and update on latest scientific findings using mainly the informatics means.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To supply knowledge diffusion on scientific matters regarding ADHD and its relative therapies, in order to help capillarity of those resources aimed to achieve a right and fast diagnosis as well as its multimodal treatment.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To create a link among social, scholastic and sanitary structures and their relative operators involved daily with an ADHD child.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To make a map of all Italian Centres and Professionals skilled in diagnosis and multimodal treatment.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To cooperate with local and National Institutions such as: Ministries, Social Services, Health Departments, Hospitals, Universities, Private Institutions, Scientific-Cultural and “No-profit” Associations.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
AIFA onlus
Project “Parents for Parents”Project “Parents for Parents”
To defend childrens’ rights and their families’, in order to improve their quality of life and favour the social acceptability of the disorder.
www.aifa.it/scopi.htm
ADHD status in ItalyADHD status in Italy
AIFA onlus
THE ADHD IN ITALY … Is ignored and mistrusted
Rarely diagnosed and properly treated
Adults with ADHD are not treated
The Families are often forced to travel all around the Country to obtain the right diagnosis and treatment
The right therapies are not well known and often the families are charged for it
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
AIFA complaints….AIFA complaints….
AIFA onlus
…serious happenings
Penal and civil reports
Expulsions from schools, sport and church activities Scholastic outcasting
Scholastic failures
Separation of parents
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
AIFA complaints….AIFA complaints….
AIFA onlus
Physical and Psychic mistreatment
social isolation of families
Psychic disorder reported in brothers and sisters
Wrong and useless counselling and therapies, often expensive and long lasting
Adopted children with ADHD are often abandoned or sent back to Institutes
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
serious problems during adolescence
serious problems during adolescence
AIFA onlus
Low self-esteem Inattention Impulsivity/Hyperactivity
Depression, anxiety
Loneliness and instability in relationships
Early and major use of tobacco
Early pregnancies
Scholastic desertion
Poor working profit
Frequnt car accidents
Early pregnancies
Few friends
Law Troubles (rare)
Frequent car accidents
Early pregnancies
…To describe what it means living with an
ADHD child is hard to explain: it’s just a relation made of
hatred-love, a new kind of feeling, all to be discovered….Only who lives all this can
understand it!
AIFA onlus
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
But what do they know how my life is, of the
stress of going around all day long following a child
who keeps running around all the time, who cannot be brushed passed by another
child without smacking or insulting him?
AIFA onlus
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
AIFA onlus
One of my son’s classroom mates’
mother has told me that me and my
husband are not good parents, otherwise it couldn’t be possible that my child keeps
disturbing her child all the time……I feel like
running away in a desert and scream…..
www.aifa.it/storie.htm
what has AIFA done?what has AIFA done?
AIFA onlus
Promoted self-help
To set up a net of reference parents Nationwide
Replying to letters and phone calles
Gathering “true stories”
Promoting groups of self-help among parents
Promoting parent-trainings sessions
Promoting a census of allNational “Centres and Resources”
Promoting National Meetings for reference parents
Promoting a meeting forum (Agorà)
Promoting the ’AIFA-ICG group for international contacts
www.aifa.it/tappe.htm
what has AIFA done?what has AIFA done?
AIFA onlus
Publishing the Internet site www.aifa.it
Promoting the NewsletterAifa
Promoting the information newspaper AIFANews
Publishing articols, books, audio-visual material
Replying to “culturally and scientifically uncorrect” articols
Taking part of TV programs and congresses
Organizing local and National Courses and Conventions
Information
www.aifa.it/tappe.htm
what has AIFA done?what has AIFA done?
AIFA onlus
Contacts with Mass media and Associations
Contacts and cooperation with Health Ministry, National Health Institute, Scientific Societies, and Universities
Contacts with Schools and Ministry of Education
Taking part as member in the International Group of Coordination
Taking part as member in the Family Association Forum
Taking part at the National Consensus
Promoting the diffusion of the Italian Guide Lines (2002)
Promoting the diffusion of the European Council Parliament Recommendation (2002)
Promoting the outset of National Referring Centres (NHI)
Diffusion
www.aifa.it/tappe.htm
Thanks for this place that you have dedicated to us parents, to make us feel less lonely in our path…….
Thanks for your words of affection and hope that you always manage to find for us……..
Thanks for your strength in fighting for ADHD…
Thanks for being there because it reassures us!
“AIFA is making a very importan job, not only within its own field, that of supporting the families, but also in that more complex of diffusion of knowledge, being in the meantime the link between School and all the other Institutions, including families, involved with ADHD”.
Honourable Minister Olimpia TarziaPresident of Permanent Observatory of FamiliesRome 2003
Thanks for what you
are doing…
their smile tomorrow…their smile tomorrow…
Italian Association of ADHD Families
… will also depend on you!