We all know that the NHS waitlists are incredibly long and that this is having a negative impact on people’s lives, jobs, and relationships. For people who have neurodivergent conditions, it’s even longer as there’s not only a lack of support but also the number of people seeking support is increasing at rapid rates.
In areas of the UK, the number of adults seeking help and support for neurodivergent conditions, like ADHD and autism, has increased by 600% in 2 ½ years. For many years there were lots of neurodivergent people that just weren’t diagnosed but now there’s more knowledge around ranging neurodiverse conditions, more people are getting correctly diagnosed. This means though, that there’s bigger increases in the number of people seeking support after they’ve been diagnosed.
It's estimated that there are 1.2 million autistic people and 2.2 million people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England. These are huge numbers that’s hard to tackle with local GP and NHS services.
What is this lack of support and growing increase in people needing support impacting?
There are huge impacts on various aspects of people’s lives. It can negatively impact people’s mental health and their careers. Not receiving the support they need for their neurodiverse conditions means that they may have trouble navigating their emotions and symptoms, making many feel uncomfortable entering the workforce, let alone thriving in it.
Having support like counselling would help neurodiverse people to mitigate their symptoms and come to terms with them in a really positive way. Symptoms are ranging, and everyone has different experiences with their neurodiverse condition, so it’s good to talk to someone and figure it out together rather than alone. Once figuring out what symptoms are having an impact on the person at work, or what is triggering certain symptoms, employees and employers can look at reasonable adjustments to help those suffering feel more comfortable and focussed on work.
Whilst some might argue that you just have to ‘get on with it’ when you’re at work, it’s actually counter productive and here’s why…
Not feeling great, whether it’s physically or mentally, can be incredibly distracting for those at work and it can reduce the quality of work produced. For neurodivergent people, not having reasonable adjustments or not feeling comfortable in the workplace, means that they’ll find it harder to concentrate, struggle to actually come into work and remain in work depending on their neurodivergence and symptoms.