The Vancouver Sun celebrated ADHD Awareness week by stigmatizing ADHD on it’s front page, & sharing it Canada wide via the Canwest 2.0 / PostMedia News network in a story by reporter Tracy Sherlock.
Update 2: The Vancouver Sun actually ran a story on the same study nearly a month earlier, August 18th with the title One million children may be misdiagnosed with ADHD: Study. VSun link was deleted so linked to Canada.com story with a different title.
They ran it as a news piece without the 3 comments by people who do not diagnose ADHD in children and are not ADHD experts. So please explain to me why a story The Vancouver Sun (a daily newspaper) covered on August 18th 2010 was also their front lead news story on Sept 13th 2010?
Update:
See: The 2 blog posts Vancouver Psychologist Dr. Jim Roche who diagnoses ADHD and works with ADHD children has written on the Vancouver Sun ADHD stigma article.
1. Vancouver Sun doesn’t get the point about ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment
2.ADHD: Science-Based Medicine and Psychology
Monday Sept 13th 2010 was the 1st day of the 7th annual ADHD Awareness week in the US. Sadly, Canada, which is quite backward in understanding and dealing with ADHD, has yet to have a 1st one. BC is more backwards on ADHD than some other provinces like Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
The Vancouver Sun has done some great articles on depression and biploar in the past. That’s one reason why it was so disappointing on the 1st day of ADHD Awareness week to read their front page lead article stigmatizing ADHD and promoting myths about ADHD instead of exposing the stigma and myths about ADHD. Their Sept 13th A1 headline by reporter Tracy Sherlock was
“One in five hyperactive children possibly misdiagnosed, report finds”
I’m an adult ADHD coach who has ADHD and I don’t have a problem with the actual findings of the study, which talks about children who are younger than their peers in classes being more likely to be misdiagnosed with ADHD. When you consider that ADHD is often considered a developmental delay, and that ADHD isn’t taken seriously enough by the government, healthcare system and the media let alone the general public (for example the BC govt closed the only public Adult ADHD clinic after it had an politically embarassing 1 year wait list ) and that many doctors are unfortunately not provided with proper training on diagnosing and treating ADHD, it was not that surprising for those of us who know ADHD. You can see the full study in PDF format here
It’s the rest of the Vancouver Sun article that’s the problem. Worse, it got picked up by PostMedia News (Canwest 2.0) so they promoted ignorance and stigma about ADHD across Canada in outlets like the Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Global TV, etc.
Too bad the Vancouver Sun didn’t do a more responsible, non stigmatizing article on the diagnosing ADHD in children study like the one The National Post (a sister PostMediaNews paper) did 3 weeks earlier link deleted (http://www.nationalpost.com/Diagnose+kids+attention+disorders+with+care/3435038/story.html) written by a doctor that actually diagnoses ADHD in children, Dr. Yoel Abells.
This post has 3 sections
1. Six Problems with the Vancouver Sun’s coverage of the ADHD story (there are more but I’ll limit it to six).
2. Some thoughts on the implication of the study.
3. Some possible actions you can take at the end of this post.
Here are 6 problems with the Vancouver Sun’s coverage
1. It’s OLD news for a daily newspaper.
Nearly a month old. Yet, it was published as a front page lead story in a “daily” newspaper. It ran in Macleans and many other print media sites on August 17th vs Vancouver Sun’s September 13th.
2. The article mentions a study on diagnosing ADHD in children, quotes 3 local people in the article and NONE of them:
1. Actually diagnose ADHD in children or adults.
2. Are recognized experts in ADHD.
Would the Vancouver Sun do an article on diagnosing liver disease and quote 3 locals on it and not have at least one of them someone who actually diagnoses liver disease? How did this slip by the editors? Or was it a deliberate decision to slant the story from the beginning to stigmatize people with ADHD and use them as bait for more readers?
3. The only quote highlighted is a stigmatizing quote demonstrating ignorance of ADHD
This is the only pull quote in the text that’s been bolded to draw attention to it
There is no blood test for ADHD — it’s very subjective and this study makes that very clear,” MacDonald said. “I’ve long suspected that our attitude toward rambunctious behaviour influences whether we perceive that children have ADHD. Barry MacDonald
Where do I begin?
Barry Mcdonald is a RCC, registered clinical counselor, not a psychologist. RCC’s don’t diagnose ADHD.
“There’s no blood test for ADHD”
Of course there’s no blood test for ADHD. There’s no blood test for depression or schizophrenia either. Does that invalidate/minimize/trivialize/stigmatize the diagnosis of depression or schizophrenia?
There are NO blood tests for ANY mental health condition. That’s the most basic point of diagnosing ANY mental health condition. Why doesn’t the Vancouver Sun reporter Tracy Sherlock or any of her editors know this? No one expects them to be experts on every medical condition, but surely shouldn’t there be some baseline knowledge? In an editor at least, if not a reporter?
It was the lead front page story. Shouldn’t there be at least a few editors around with a very basic understanding of physical and mental health conditions? Especially when you see how many editors there on the Vancouver Sun’s contact page?
Does the Vancouver Sun need someone like Psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Weiss, head of the BC ADHD clinic to come in to educate the Vancouver Sun staff on some basic factual knowledge on ADHD and other mental health conditions?
If you want to learn what’s involved in diagnosing ADHD, or let your doctor know, the CADDRA (Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance) Canadian ADHD Practice Guidelines will tell you. CADDAC, CHADD Canada, TotallyADD and my 180 page ADHD resource website are some other good Canadian websites on ADHD.
The second part of the quote, “I’ve long suspected that our attitude toward rambunctious behaviour influences whether we perceive that children have ADHD.” is another common myth used to stigmatize ADHD, i.e. the old “it’s not really ADHD, its just boys being boys/active”, or “Only people who have massively off the chart behavior problems have ADHD, there’s too many boys being boys diagnosed with it” BS meme. The subtext is trying to push the it’s not a real condition/ only extreme off the chart cases are ADHD, etc. There’s a huge difference between believing something and having a solid clinical diagnosis by someone who really understands ADHD. Trouble is not enough doctors do.
Why does the Vancouver Sun decide to highlight one paragraph, this one? Why highlight ignorance and stigma? Shouldn’t the job of a newspaper be to expose ignorance and correct ignorance and stigma? Versus make it most prominent part of the story and syndicate it nationwide?
4. Study Author Todd Elder also talks about the under diagnosis of ADHD in the study that the media ignored.
Although recent headlines from his research have focused on the possibility that nearly 1 million children in the U.S. may have been misdiagnosed with ADHD, Elder tells WebMD that there may also be a substantial amount of under diagnosis among older kids.
but Vancouver Sun also ignores that. Wonder why? Doesn’t fit their biased narrative?
ADHD is misdiagnosed, overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. Underdiagnosis is the biggest problem, especially in adults, and ignorance & stigma against ADHD is one of the reasons for this. This will continue to happen until people start demanding medical schools and the BC College of physicians and surgeons starts properly training doctors and psychiatrists on ADHD. Maybe start by contacting your local BC MLA or or contact BC’s Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon
5. ADHD is not just Hyperactive
Headline is “One in five hyperactive children possibly misdiagnosed, report finds”. Not all children with ADHD are hyperactive, many girls, and some boys have the inattentive form of ADHD, AND often don’t get diagnosed because people aren’t aware of it. That’s why the actual report and other media used the term ADHD.
6. Most obvious question ignored.
Wouldn’t an obvious question from the study be: given the findings, are BC doctors, psychiatrists and psychologist adequately trained enough in ADHD to be able to properly diagnose and treat ADHD in children? Let alone adults, given there are more adults with ADHD than children, since ADHD is 80% genetic (fathers usually stay in denial longer than mothers) How come that question is never asked? Would it harm the biased narrative?
Go to the end of this post if you want some ideas on responding to the Vancouver Sun and Post Media New’s ignorance and stigmatization of ADHD
Implications of the study
If the study is indeed accurate and SOME medical professionals are overdiagnosing younger children and underdiagnosing older children in those numbers or even near that, it should be a wake up call to the public, the healthcare system, and the media. Too bad the media is sleeping through the alarm clock.
BC Parents shouldn’t have their child diagnosed with ADHD when they don’t have it or not diagnosed with ADHD when they do have it.
BC doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists are NOT adequately trained on ADHD; this is what many of them have told me. Many of them have said they weren’t trained on ADHD during medical school. There ARE some people like Dr. Margaret Weiss of the BC ADHD Clinic at Children’s Hospital and Dr. Gabor Mate who has ADHD and wrote a book on it, Scattered Minds who are world-class experts in ADHD here in Vancouver, but they learned about ADHD on their own.
UBC medical students only get one hour of training on ADHD during their entire program.
Is that enough to diagnose and treat a complex condition like ADHD where there are many co-existing condition with it, and they’re the norm, not the exception? If not what is being done to change that?
One reason the media keeps stigmatizing ADHD is not only the lack of properly trained medical professionals who know ADHD, but many people with ADHD don’t go public with the condition because of the ignorance and stigma surrounding ADHD, which the Vancouver Sun and PostMedia News (Canwest 2.0) perpetuates.
Of course not everyone should and there are many dangers and benefits to doing this and it should not be done impulsivly. I’ve got 100+ answers so far, some amazing powerful stories, and am working on analyzing it for a media release and a series of blog posts.
But some of the common answers I’ve found from my survey was that when they talked to their families, friends and medical professionals about having ADHD, they often were told ADHD isn’t a real condition. They also had families, friends, and medical professionals insulting, shaming, and stigmatizing ADHD and them for having it.
Here’s one quote from part of one person’s answer.
I am very careful about revealing to people about having ADHD. In conversations, they would say things like “Oh ADHD does not exist” or “it is just laziness.” Someone said “everyone has it these days.” When I hear people mention things like this, I just decide not to reveal anything to them. My mother still yells at me and tells me that I am just being lazy and disorganized on purpose.
What can you do about this?
1. Contact these people and politely tell them your thoughts about their Sept 13th front page lead article stigmatizing ADHD.
Patricia Graham, Editor-in-Chief, Vancouver Sun
Phone: 604-605-2318 pgraham@vancouversun.com
Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun
Phone: 604-605-2033 klapointe@vancouversun.com
Alex Beer, Editor-in-Chief Postmedia New
Phone: 289-396-2066 abeer@canwest.com
or the editor of the local paper that approved and syndicated this article
2. Share your thoughts about this article on twitter, facebook, your blog, or email it to others that might be interested in it.
3. Express your thoughts in the comment section of this blog post
4. Ask the Vancouver Sun and PostMedia News to do an article on ADHD that dispels the myths and stigma surrounding ADHD instead of promoting them. Perhaps by interviewing people who actually know ADHD well enough to properly diagnose ADHD and people who actually have expertise in ADHD
5. Contact your local BC MLA or or contact BC’s Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon and ask them why aren’t they making sure BC’s Doctors, Psychiatrists and Psychologists are properly trained on diagnosing and treating ADHD in children and adults? BC Parents shouldn’t have their child diagnosed with ADHD when they don’t have it or not diagnosed with ADHD when they do have it.
6. Other ideas?
Have you sent this in also to Fazil Mihlar (check sp.), to be published in letters to the editor? ( Or perhaps you did, & it ran this week in the paper?)
If no, I suggest that you do. I’m not certain they’d still run it if the story was 4 days ago, because of it being the ‘week’, they might put it in tomorrow if you called & let him know it’s coming today.
I agree that we more education particularily with respect to childhood mental illness. Non-stigmatizing education is the key to help parents, medical practicioners, pyschologist etc. understand when and how to have children assessed. Early intervention and proper family supports are critical in long term health outcomes. Let’s spread the word.
Hi Lisa, good idea.
Hopefully a doctor who actually diagnoses ADHD in children will comment on the Vancouver Sun story, since it’s about diagnosing ADHD in children, and as an adult ADHD coach I don’t diagnose ADHD. So think the letter in the Sun by a doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist will have more impact than an ADHD coach.
Great article, Peter! I’m completely on the same page as you, in fact I was venting about this very subject on my FB page just as you were posting your article. I am still trying to wrap my mind around why ADHD has such a bad rep. It just makes no sense. As you said, none of the mental disorders can be proven via a blood test and the characteristics of ADHD are pretty darn specific, (true when you toss in other executive/sensory function disorders things aren’t as cut and dry, but still!!!)
Anyway, I’m so glad that you called the paper out on that ridiculous story. Good for you and thank you!
i also see this as part of the sloppy science reporting that is happening everywhere.
who would be able to shed a GOOD light on this? gillian shaw? theresa lalonde?
Hi Rebecca, you’re right we definitely do. Non-stigmatizing is the key word. Too bad so many people are quick to stigmatize and promote that stigma including journalists and editors that should know better.
If you diagnose and properly treat ADHD properly at a young age you save a lot of money down the road for taxpayers let alone the human and financial costs to the families of ADHD children
ADHD medications are ONE treatment, not the only one. Even the drug companies don’t say ADHD meds are a complete solution. You need to balance the brain chemistry and teach self awareness, self management and specific skills to properly deal with ADHD.
There’s the ADHD parent program to help families of ADHD children in Vancouver but if you live outside of Vancouver there is nothing like that.
Thanks Ben,
Probably many reasons why ADHD has such a bad rep. One big one is most medical professionals aren’t properly trained on ADHD, some have no training at all. Even now at Vancouver UBC medical school students only get one hour on ADHD. Totally inadequate.
Plus many people who strongly stigmatize ADHD, not all but many I and others have found seem to have many of the symptoms ADHD. It’s like they’re so ashamed that they might have a condition that they see as negative and they’re too cowardly to admit it so they project the shame on the condition and people with ADHD so they don’t have to look inside themselves. Also they’re probably scared other people will notice that THEY look like they have ADHD so if they attack it loud and long enough they hope nobody will notice and call them out on it.
Also because very few people with ADHD go public and expose the myths, lies and stigma about ADHD and demand services and show the truth about ADHD, you often only or mainly hear the stigmatizers.
Well you’ve got a good point Isabella,
there’s a lot of sloppy science reporting going on lately. I think that Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun and Theresa Lalonde of CBC would have done a much better job on this piece vs the shoddy job that was done.
I’ve seen some really good in depth articles on the Vancouver Sun before on depression and bipolar. Can’t remember who wrote them but they were really good pieces. That’s why this piece (not as long as those ones of course) by the Vancouver Sun was so shocking.
If I thought all the reporters and editors at the Vancouver Sun were all incompetent and lazy, this piece would be just par for the course. But I don’t.
Dr. Gabor Mate used to write columns for the Globe and Mail, and he really knows ADHD, mental health and addictions. Dr. Yoel Abells who wrote on this study for the National Post and did a good job of it.
http://bit.ly/a62P4E
Here’s 2 blog posts on the Vancouver Sun ADHD stigma article by Vancouver psychologist Dr. Jim Roche who knows ADHD where he talks about their sloppy journalism.
Vancouver Sun doesn’t get the point about ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment
http://bit.ly/cyFlRO
ADHD: Science-Based Medicine and Psychology
http://bit.ly/cRrrX1
Maybe the Vancouver Sun needs to hire a doctor who knows mental and physical health to write on those topics in a factual and non stigmatizing way.
Can anyone think of any Vancouver area reporters, Vancouver Sun or otherwise who could do a decent job on a story like this?
Hi, Pete.
As I read it, the authors of the study don’t claim that there is underdiagnosis (nor do they claim that there is overdiagnosis or misdiagnosis). The word “possibly” is necessary in the headline of the Sun article because, as I read it, the authors of the study only raise the possibility that there may be some misdiagnosis. They estimate an amount of overdiagnosis, but only on the basis of some clearly stated assumptions, and they also, in their last paragraph, raise an alternative possibility: that some or all of the discrepancy they measured is due not to overdiagnosis of young children, but to underdiagnosis of older children. In other words: the study is consistent with a hypothesis that nobody is underdiagnosed. The study is also consistent with an alternative possibility that nobody is overdiagnosed. (Or that some of each occur, or other possibilities.)
Since the study article spends a lot less text discussing the underdiagnosis possibility than the overdiagnosis possibility, and since it’s only a possibility, I think it’s unfair for you to expect a short newspaper article to necessarily mention it. Newspaper articles usually give only a small amount of detail about scientific studies.
On another tack:
What if there were a study showing that people are more likely to be diagnosed with depression if the psychiatrist’s receptionist doesn’t smile at them just before their session. Would there be a big headline about this and a quote like “I’ve long suspected that a patient’s short-term emotional state influences whether they’re perceived as having depression”? No, the newspapers would ignore it. It would be non-controversial.
Why is identifying people as having ADHD so much more controversial than identifying people as having depression or other mental health conditions?
C.
Hi Cathy,
good point on the word possibly. And as I mentioned the author of the study said
“Although recent headlines from his research have focused on the possibility that nearly 1 million children in the U.S. may have been misdiagnosed with ADHD, Elder tells WebMD that there may also be a substantial amount of under diagnosis among older kids.”
Well if the article talks about both over and under diagnosis of ADHD, I think it’s only fair that they both should be mentioned.
This is a great question you ask
“Why is identifying people as having ADHD so much more controversial than identifying people as having depression or other mental health conditions?”
A proper ADHD diagnosis is not controversial at all among people who are professionals who actually deal with people with ADHD and know the science. One book some might like to read is Dr. Russell Barkley’s ADHD in adults – what the science says. He’s a researcher who’s written other books and articles on ADHD and has documented the research around ADHD extensively.
A big problem is many in the media buy into the misinformation about ADHD and don’t know the facts about it, and unlike depression very few people with ADHD bother try to educate the media, govt or healthcare system about ADHD or share their personal stories. So the stigmatizers often win not by quality of argument but by sheer numbers and lack of opposition.
Lack of alternative voices often means that many people just hear the stigmatizers and minimizers and sadly many believe them, because few people with ADHD speak out against them.