CBT Plus, with ADHD: intervention across the ages, from children to adults

Because ADHD is a relatively recent diagnosis it has until recently been diagnosed mainly in children and young people, but it often – perhaps usually - persists well into adulthood and even later life, where it is the difficulty in concentration that is most striking rather than the hyperactivity. Rarely if ever do adults acquire ADHD spontaneously, without having had it earlier in life, although many adults were too young for it to have been a diagnosis when they were children. For these reasons, this course importantly addresses ADHD in total, across the life-span.

In young people, ADHD is a diagnosis that can cause confusion and concern in parents and caregivers. They may already be 'at their wits end' in terms of responding to disruptive behaviour and can then be confronted with entrenched viewpoints about whether medical or psychosocial interventions are most effective – and even which ones are morally 'right'. Even from professionals. In adults it causes a parallel but slightly different set of effects.

This course therefore takes a comprehensive view of the nature of ADHD and the far reaching problems it can cause. Most importantly though, it details what effective psychosocial interventions are available for those with ADHD and also those around them.

• What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? An overview of ADHD, its history, current controversies and what it is and is not.
• How ADHD develops in children, how it is attributable to many causal factors and how this can make diagnosis and intervention more difficult. How it impacts on adolescence and adulthood, and even late adulthood.
• What is a thorough assessment? Outlining the importance of a thorough assessment and clear protocol, the need to identify and treat accompanying difficulties and the importance of a clear diagnosis and treatment plan with achievable goals.
• How the impact of ADHD can cause frustration and distress for a child, their peers, their caregivers, family, teachers and other professionals involved. How ADHD may impact differently, yet still very profoundly, in adulthood.
• NICE Guidelines.
• PsychoEducation about ADHD in children, young people and adults, with an information sheet for their benefit.
• The need for an overall philosophy to address many behaviours at the same time, as well as allowing for acknowledgement and reinforcement of positive behaviours and strengths (RAID).
• Detailed coping strategies that can be used at different ages, especially those geared towards deficits in attention which may otherwise impact on learning and later on job performance.
• The importance of addressing specific problems including learning problems, low self-esteem, impulsivity and depression.
• Provision of treatment across settings including individual, family, and group work, as well as intervention and consultation in the home, school and community.
• Template for Support and Information groups, an important facet of intervention.
• Focus on self-care for parents, family and professionals, looking at how ADHD can stretch even the most prepared and committed people, and the need for solid self-care strategies and plans.
• Concepts sometimes conflated with ADHD including BPD / EUPD.
• Evidence-based practice: evaluating progress.
• Where to from here? How to capitalise on the course.

• You will know about ADHD: what it is, how it develops, what the diagnostic criteria are, how it appears in children through to adults.
• You will be able to do a proper structured assessment of people with ADHD, and have a form to help you do so.
• You will be able to make sense of the information you gather in the assessment, to produce a case formulation and treatment plan.
• You will know about helpful intervention strategies for people with ADHD, both individually and in groups.
• You will know about what NICE recommends, and you will know about Biopsychosocial interventions.
• You will have information sheets to give to your patients, and to work through with them.
• You will know how to 'take the course forward'.
• You will feel much more confident about helping people with ADHD.

You will be registered as having attended the course, thereby gaining APT's Level 1 accreditation, and receive a certificate to this effect. The accreditation gives you access to online resources associated with the course.

Your registration lasts indefinitely, and your accreditation lasts for 3 years and is renewable by sitting an online refresher which also upgrades your accreditation to APT Level 2 if you are successful in the associated online exam.

APT accreditation is probably the most relevant and transparent accreditation available to mental health professionals, see APT accreditation for full details.

Event Venue

Online