October is ADHD Awareness Month with the 2024 theme of ‘Awareness is Key’.
Kate Dean, Founder of Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants
Kate Dean is Founder of Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants and has recently joined a variety of local employers on the Leeds Mindful Employer Network Steering Group.
Mindful Employer Project Coordinator, Leigh Staunton recently met with Kate to talk about her business, ADHD and workplace inclusion and how employers can provide effective support.
Thanks Kate for taking the time to talking to us for ADHD Awareness Month. First of all please tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m Kate Dean, Founder of Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants. Prior to setting my business up in 2020, I spent over a decade leading and managing student-facing disability support teams in universities, working with 1000s of students with a range of disabilities, but most prominently neurodivergent and mental health conditions.
As Head of Disability at Leeds Beckett, I led numerous projects to identify and remove barriers and embed inclusion and I now work with organisations to offer end-to-end solution-focused support through a range of consultancy, training and workplace assessments to create inclusive spaces where people can thrive.
I am thrilled to have recently joined the Leeds Mindful Employer Steering Group…oh yeah, and I am also neurodivergent myself and bring the strengths of my ADHD and dyspraxia to the work I do. I am passionate about reframing the conversation around neurodiversity and challenging the many myths and misconceptions that are out there about what people can and can’t do.
The theme for ADHD Awareness Month 2024 is ‘Awareness is Key’. What are some examples of meaningful and valuable ways employers can raise awareness of ADHD in their business?
I support organisations in reviewing where they are in embedding neuroinclusion and as part of this, hold stakeholder interviews, focus groups and listening circles. One of the recurrent themes is around people sharing their neurodivergence with their employer. All too often people still feel reticent at best, terrified at worst, for fear of not getting the job or being treated differently. Or, when asked by their new employer, they don’t realise that ADHD is considered a disability and so don’t share.
When already working for an organisation, someone might be sat in a waiting list unsure whether to share with their manager and what to say. The waiting list for ADHD diagnostic assessments in Leeds has just had to close as there is now a 10-year wait, whilst demand has never been higher. Not because ADHD is now ‘trendy’ or ‘over-diagnosed’ as we hear all too often in the pontifications of some newspaper columnists, but rather because so many of us were overlooked going through school.
When people do share this with their employer, all too often managers don’t know what to do with this. Of course, managers want to do the right thing, but often they don’t know the words to use, the questions to ask or what adjustments and strategies might help.
So, awareness is key, of what ADHD is and what it isn’t and how to talk about it. Not just for one month of the year but to start embedding this within the fabric of organisations. However, many organisations are at the start of this process and knowing where to start can be challenging; but starting somewhere is a positive. Opening up the conversation and sharing positive messages by using ready-made resources such as those by ADHD Awareness Month in internal comms and social media channels can be a good way to start. If too late for this month, plan ahead for Neurodiversity Celebration Week in March 2025.
Then following up with meaningful actions such as creating staff networks or Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that provide a safe space for people to share their experiences, but also a place to input their thoughts, ideas, and problem-solving strengths into suggestions for changes which help improve policy, process, and practice.
Training is essential. For line managers to give them confidence but also to empower them to get the best out of their team members and training for all staff to create understanding amongst colleagues to avoid assumptions or misunderstandings.
Working with a neurodiversity specialist to undertake a review and apply a neurodivergent lens to help identify where barriers may exist within organisations. These are often invisible unless someone hits against them but there are lots of quick wins and low cost/no cost changes that can be made, that will make a huge difference.
What are the benefits of raising awareness in this way?
We are seeing a compounding evidence base for the business case around harnessing the strengths of people who think differently. In fact, the Harvard Business Review concluded that utilising these skills gives businesses a competitive advantage.
This could be in breakthroughs and innovation in product design, service delivery, or continuous improvement generally that drives profit or enables organisations to remain agile in the face of change. Increased retention rates and improved engagement and productivity are seen when people are set up to succeed. Thinking differently is now being actively sought out by those organisations that have truly embraced and harnessed the strengths of neurodiversity in the workplace, and so it’s a win:win for organisations and individuals alike.
Can you tell us a bit about how having ADHD could impact on someone’s mental health?
There are many strengths that come with ADHD that are often overlooked when we describe something as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [with the negative connotations of these words]. However, there are also challenges that people experience, some of them significant and can be debilitating.
Mental health challenges are part of neurodivergence generally, whether this be low mood or heightened anxiety. Many women are often diagnosed with mental health conditions initially before going on to be diagnosed with ADHD and finally being able to understand how their brain works. There is a strong link between ADHD and PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) and lots of the women I work with are being diagnosed as they go through perimenopause and menopause when traits can be exacerbated. Self-harm and suicide rates are significantly higher in ADHDers and neurodivergent people generally and we must do something about this.
In a work context, ADHDers can often burnout as their energy flows can differ to their neurotypical peers, they experience sleep disturbances, or they mask traits to ‘fit in’ and this may result in someone taking time off sick.
From recruitment and induction onward, how can we create mentally healthy workplaces for employees with ADHD?
There are many ways to build inclusion into the recruitment and onboarding processes that would benefit everyone. Make it clear in your messaging that you welcome people that think differently, that you have anticipated this as part of the recruitment process and offer adjustments as standard, for example sharing the interview questions in advance and then everyone gets their best opportunity to reflect on the questions and bring their best examples to the interview process.
Providing candidates with detailed information of what to expect from the recruitment process, offering a choice of face to face and virtual interviews with a choice of time of day are all ways to enable someone to be at their best. Making recruitment panels aware that someone might need to fidget or move around in an interview, and this will help them to engage.
Create a sense of psychological safety for people to share their neurodivergence and work with specialist neurodiversity providers to build in-house knowledge of how to respond and implement effective adjustments and strategies based on that person’s individual presentation of ADHD, it is not a one size fits all.
When joining a new team, asking about communication preferences, backing up information in writing, allocating a desk appropriate to sensory needs where distractions are minimised are all effective easy things to implement. Along with ascertaining if someone requires a locker or lockable space to store staff passes, documents, keys etc to support with personal organisation.
It is essential to ensure that any equipment or software a person requires is available from day 1, rather than 3 months later and potentially in the middle or end of their probation period.
How can an employer/manager effectively support an employee with a recent diagnosis of ADHD or who thinks they might have ADHD?
To managers: listen and hear what the person is saying. Don’t worry if you don’t know what to do but know who to speak to. Ask ‘what can I do to support you?’ Approach this conversation with the sensitivity, empathy, and compassion it deserves; it is likely that the person will be feeling anxious about sharing this. Don’t judge or say, ‘well you don’t look it’. Don’t ask for evidence; this is not required. Lots of people are now starting to self-identify and it’s just as important to validate this experience as someone who has been formally diagnosed.
Be mindful that there is currently a global shortage of ADHD medication and if someone has been on this for a while, their ability to focus, manage emotions or impulses, or their mental health may all be impacted.
At an organisational level, make sure you are aware of the legal duty to make adjustments and have you have trained your line managers on this. Work with neurodiversity suppliers to understand what these might look like and how you can ensure that the process of agreeing, sharing, and implementing adjustments is embedded and seamless. Undertake a review to identify where barriers exist and appropriate actions to remove them.
What are some reasonable adjustments that could be useful for an employee with ADHD?
ADHD brains are wired for stimulation and so involving ADHDers in discussions that require ideas generation and creativity can be of benefit to all. Once stimulated an ADHD brain can often move into periods of intense hyperfocus and get work done. Having a conversation about a task can often be a great help to an ADHDer experiencing procrastination or challenges starting a piece of work and help provide this stimulation.
In addition to the things mentioned throughout other effective adjustments can include:
- Support someone to plan and prioritise their workload; this often doesn’t come naturally to an ADHDer.
- Have dedicated uninterrupted time in diaries to complete tasks with no meetings and turning off all emails and notifications.
- Supportive check-ins and deadlines can be a way to support an ADHDer to maintain focus and complete a task if stimulation is wearing off.
- Some ADHDers may work well when body doubling with another who is working. For others working to deadlines and needing to be accountable to others sparks the stimulation needed.
- Permission to wear headphones to listen to music or other tools that support focus (see links at the end).
- Introduce movement for those who need to move in order to engage. Sit/stand desks, walking meetings, ‘space to pace’ or allowing someone to have their camera off in virtual meetings to move around and fidget. These all give someone the opportunity to exert energy which helps someone to engage.
- Breaks in between meetings or during longer meetings can help someone manage their attention levels or recalibrate this in between meetings. Access to a quiet room or access to outdoor space can help this.
- Work with energy flows – this might not be consistent across 40 hours per week, or work might be impacted by poor sleep. Flexibility in working hours, 9-day fortnights and annualised hours can be really effective.
- Timely and sensitive feedback and patience and acceptance for any misunderstandings. Often ADHDers can experience strong reactions to criticism or injustice.
Additional info and resources
- ADHD Foundation
- ADHD UK
- ADHD Welfare Pack
- Additude Magazine
- ADHD Screening
- ADHD Awareness Month
- Neurodiversity Celebration Week
Tools to aid focus
Noisli – sounds of nature to mask peripheral noises and help to improve focus and boost productivity.
Binaural Beats and Lo-fi Beats – two slightly different frequencies of music played into each ear that can help concentration and focus, anxiety, and sleep. Search YouTube, Google Play, Spotify, Apple App Store for options.
A Soft Murmur – an online background noise generator designed to aid focus and tune out unpleasant sounds from the environment.
White Noise Generator – modifiable white, pink, and brown noise to help obscure background noises in offices or to aid sleep.
Stay Focused – an extension for Google Chrome that supports focus by restricting the amount of time users can spend on unrelated websites. Once allotted time has been used up, selected sites will be blocked, and access restricted for the rest of the day.
Forest – plant a tree, the tree will grow while focus is maintained but dies if users become distracted.
Thanks so much to Kate Dean for contributing to this blog. You can follow Kate on LinkedIn. You can also get in touch with Enable Disability & Inclusion Consultants directly.
