support

Self-Help And Support Group Information

STARTING YOUR ADULT SUPPORT GROUP

Starting a support group begins with finding people with your common interest. You can look for a CHADD or ADDA group and start by networking with them. You can also check with local mental health centers, children's hospitals, pediatricians, school counselors. Local college's may also have information on what they do to work with the learning challenged, and who develops their plans for them.

For adult groups I prefer them to be less formal and not the large lecture type formats. The smaller more intimate group works best for me, although I'm sure this will vary with each individual.

All of the previous steps are to help find people with common interests and challenges. The approach I am suggesting is not for those who want to step into a great group that is already organized. Although that would be very nice it, the odds on it happening are highly unlikely.

Your first meetings can be casual and meet at someone's house. All you really need is two, three or four people and some books or articles to share. Hopefully at least one of you will be on some kind of medication that will help you to stay organized.

Just meet once or twice a month for a few hours. Often it works best to only meet once a month, although some groups may feel they have to meet more frequently. At the meetings take notes and begin to get a feel for what the group members are interested in. You might make a list of 10 to 15 topics like, "organization", "timeliness" "controlling impulsiveness" and such. Then give each member in the group a copy of the list. Have them number the topics in order of importance. With this list in hand you will have the discussion topics for the rest of your first year!

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Involve members of your group in getting more information on those areas which rate in the top five. Let people gather information and express themselves. Then watch how your group grows!

(A suggestion! Use the 10 Commandments of ADD for starting a discussion in your adult group. Copy these and hand them out and get everyone to say something about it to the group)

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