Dispelling the Myths about ADHD

Canada has launched it's first-ever Awareness Campaign to promote understanding, dispel myths and stimulate advocacy for ADHD. One of the main goals of the campaign is to increase the support that Canadian students with ADHD receive in the classroom.

"Currently in Ontario, a diagnosis of ADHD does not qualify a student for a special needs designation in most school boards. This designation gives these students the right to receive accommodations in the way they are taught and evaluated. There is also no consistency in Ontario on how children with ADHD are serviced or if they are serviced at all."

Heidi Bernhardt, national director for the Centre for ADHD Advocacy in Canada (CADDAC), hopes to use the Awareness Campaign as leverage to convince the Ministry of Education that educational changes need to be implemented. Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Education, recently acknowledged that the Ontario Human Rights Code requires school boards to accommodate students with ADHD.