A day in my life as the National Coordinator for ADHD

Thanks to author Raewyn Heays.

Raewyn, ADHD NZ's National Coordinator, juggles many things on a daily basis.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the activities that she manages.

A day in my life as the National Coordinator for ADHD

9.00am

After having got my two children (Mr 17 – ADHD and ASD, and Miss 13 – Inattentive ADHD) sorted and off to school (or, lately, organised for Online School – sigh), I grab a coffee and get stuck into my day.

As I check for phone messages the computer whirls into life, I see the emails ping through – on average around 40 a day, not counting the enquiries via the website…

I also look in on our various Facebook communities – I keep that open all the time, clicking in every now and then to see how they’re going. I enjoy the vibe of the private Facebook groups – they’re a real pulse of our ADHD community.

9.10am

The day starts with the money. I check the bank accounts to make sure that any invoices that were meant to go out have and keep an eye on the balance. After the accounts I log into Xero – I reconcile any outstanding entries as I like to keep the entries up to date, and double check with GST and things are due to be issued to IRD.

9.30am

Thinking about money I need to check the dates for when our pending grant applications will be considered and if they’re asking for any more info. I can check the dates for upcoming grants what we can apply for at the same time… And then I remember – basketball!!!!

I must organise one to pay for our basketball programme in 2022. I log in and have a look at when the grants for our ADHD and ASD Basketball Programme are due – next week!!! Okay, need to crack on with that… I enter all the required information about our programme, financial information, risk and management strategies, child safety information, attendance statistics, survey responses from past participants and click “submit”. Wish me luck!!!

12.00pm

And that reminds me I also need to email our Basketball coaches to check the dates for next term, update the webpage and contact the people who have already registered to let them know.

1.00pm

OK that’s done – I need to start returning some calls. My first is to a gentleman who wondered if he may have had ADHD all his life and is unsure what to do from here. His son was recently diagnosed, and the gentleman realised that he sounded like his son at the same age. He tells me about his life and challenges, and we chat about how he could get assessed. Once again, wish I had the names of more specialists to give him. Good luck sir!!

1.45pm

Gosh is that the time?? I grab a sandwich and another coffee and quickly scan our Facebook groups before I’m back to emails…. The emails are good – a lot of people asking how to get assessed. It seems now that more and more are coming from adults looking for an assessment – wish I had more names of specialists to send out.

2.00pm

Exciting – I’ve just been sent a PDF of the proposed new information pack. Lockdown has made it hard to organise information packs that we used to send out. Just need to create a cover for it – will be awesome to just be able to email our information pack instead of manually printing, collating, and posting. Awesome stuff!! I create a cover for it so it’s ready to go.

2.45pm

Oooh nice – got an email from Karen, our coordinator of the Wellington ADHD Parent Community – it’s always nice to hear from her. She also runs the Lego Club, that she’s hoping to expand, and the Minecraft Club, which unfortunately she’s had to cancel this month (stupid Covid!!) so I log into the website and update the page to let people know.

3.00pm

Normally this is when I finish work and I’d go and pick up my children from school but now that school is online, I keep going.

Awesome – an alert about a new financial member. I always love getting new members. I’ve got about 10 financial members who have come through recently. I need to email them to welcome them to our community so I draft these and attach our new information pack pdf that we’ve created.

3.10pm

Emails have been coming through thick and fast. I grab another coffee and do a quick scan.

Interesting – an email from a university student doing a research paper who wants to know if they can survey our community. Sure… They sent a blurb which I post on one of our ADHD FB pages for our community to respond to (or not) and make a note to follow-up on the results. Always happy to help those working to better the ADHD community.

3.15pm

Awesome – someone has made a booking for our Online Every Day with ADHD parenting course. I add their details to our registration sheet and send them a confirmation email. The courses haven’t been advertised for long but are filling up fast… Great stuff!!

3.20pm

A nice bundle of new non-financial members come in too – I contact them to confirm their subscription and point them in the direction of our website for information.

3.50pm

Another email from a group of uni students wanting me to give them members names and details that they can talk to about sensory areas in Dunedin – hmmmm… Not going to hand out members details… Happy to help them though… Suggest to them that they create a wee ad that I can post on one of our ADHD NZ Facebook communities and people can go to them if they’re interested.

4.00pm

Here’s a text message asking if I’d organised a Zoom meeting with the Board this weekend to go over upcoming plans – ooopps!! Got to get that sorted!!!! Jumping into Zoom…

4.10pm

The phone’s ringing – it’s a Mum who’s having a hard time with their child at school.

We chat about her child, when they were assessed and whether they may be due for a review (they grow so fast!!!).We talk about how she’s doing a really great job holding it all together and how she could approach the school to setup an IEP to get some extra support for her child.

I draft an email to send her information about our private Facebook community for Parents of Children with ADHD, and our Every Day with ADHD parenting course, and suggest the names of some Educational Psychologists and Counsellors from our Healthcare Directory. I remember back when my son was in primary school – those were some tough years!!! Once again, I wish I had the names of more specialists…

4.55pm

Here’s an email from someone who’s contacted us through our website. It’s from a person living overseas and planning on moving back to New Zealand next year. They’re currently prescribed ADHD medication and want to know how to keep that prescription going when they get here. I email them information about psychiatrists and Special Authority numbers. Yet again, wish there were more specialists available…

5.10pm

I go through any of the emails I wasn’t sure how to answer and forward them onto others on our Board to see what their advice is. I hope they can help.

5.20pm

It’s been a good day – time to make a list of all the stuff I still need to do in addition to the calls, emails, enquiries from the website that will come through tomorrow.