This ADHD child who wasn't one
A local mother is feeling very sad after her son's public school caused her and her son a nightmare after he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
However, two weeks ago, a counter-expertise confirmed what this mother, who previously worked in the health field, had suspected from the start: her child did not have ADHD.
In order to protect the child's identity, his name, that of the school and that of the mother will not be revealed at the latter's request. The goal of such a media outing is not to attack anyone within the Commission scolaire de la Beauce-Etchemin (CSBE), she says, but to raise awareness among parents about such a situation and to follow through to get the facts straight in case of doubt. "If I had not had the means and training in the health field, my son would be medicated today for no reason. He would not have the appropriate support for his case, because by medicating someone for a problem that is not theirs, we make the situation worse," she maintains.
The story begins in 2010 when her son was experiencing behavioral problems at school following a lack of parental cohesion between her and her ex-partner. "I was regularly told to give my child Ritalin [...]. My ex-partner was for it, but I was against it, because I wanted a more in-depth investigation. However, the school persisted in wanting to label my son with ADHD," says the mother. For two years, despite the school's insistence, it chose not to medicate her son. "When they insisted, I replied that no one other than a child psychiatrist would force me to give my child medication [...]. Medication should remain a parental choice. The role of the school is not to force us to medicate our child, but to provide support in terms of educational supervision," she believes.
However, things went from bad to worse last year when the boy's teacher was categorical in stating that he had ADHD. "From then on, they pressured us that if we didn't agree to medicate my child, he would end up in a special class [...] so we asked for a diagnosis from a child psychiatrist, something we had been asking for from the beginning," explains the mother. Then, a meeting with a pediatrician was held following the teacher's intervention. According to the mother, the diagnosis was made in five minutes on the corner of a desk. "We filled out a little grid and in five minutes, they determined that he had ADHD," she laments.
Still having doubts in mind despite the professional's advice, the mother says she tried pills for a while, but her child became aggressive, isolated himself and slept little. "We're talking about a psychostimulant that has an impact on the brain," explains the woman who worked in the health sector. "He always came home from school in a crisis. He was asked in front of everyone if he had taken his pills. He was laughed at. Then, in connection with the young man's problems, there was bullying and my son was hit by about ten children in the schoolyard. When he complained, no one believed him," she says.
Furthermore, she deplores the fact that there were not more services offered to her son in connection with the diagnosis, other than road maps and colour codes. The accumulation of all the factors mentioned ultimately led her to the decision to stop the medication. “The medication had been imposed on me […] the fear of being labelled a non-collaborating parent and of having given him pills for a total of a month went against my values,” she mentions.
"When they realized that I was not giving my child medication because I had a different vision, they chose to take steps to send him to a special school without my consent," she maintains. "They only took into consideration the opinion of my ex-partner who was in favor of taking medication. In fact, they clearly took a position for one of the two parents when they should not have. They set up an expert committee without my consent, without my presence. I was never asked why I did not want to medicate my son. I was rather looked at as if I was a terrible mother," she emphasizes.
A report was then made to the Youth Protection Department (DPJ) for non-cooperation and refusal to medicate the child. Then, according to the report, the worker finally agreed with her in her approach while encouraging her to have better parental cohesion with her ex-spouse for the best of the child. The main person concerned believes that this complaint was made in bad faith when she was planning to opt for the private sector and not give up. "Strangely, the day I reported it to the DPJ, I asked myself whether the public system was overwhelmed by the case of my problem child and that the private sector could not be the solution," she maintains.
Subsequently, exasperated by the attitude of the school management, the latter tried to resolve the problem by contacting the CSBE. However, the person referred to her literally sent her packing while challenging her to bring her lawyers. The CSBE preferred not to comment on the situation, indicating however that it is not the practice to challenge people in this way.
The mother therefore chose to file a complaint with the Student Ombudsman. “I made the mistake of making my complaint verbally and it had no impact. I advise parents to always make complaints in writing. My file was not processed because of this. I even had to hire a lawyer to speak to this person referred by the parents’ committee,” she says.
While she indicates that her son was deprived of school services for a month and that she had to pay for a special education teacher out of her own pocket following a decision by the expert committee, the mother chose to send her child to the private sector at the start of the 2015 school year.
In total, the cost of the whole adventure is in the five figures in miscellaneous fees for obtaining a second professional opinion on the child's ADHD, as well as finally having peace of mind. It took two years for the mother's request to be successful given the length of the waiting list for the services of a child psychiatrist in the area.
“Two weeks ago, the ADHD diagnosis was reversed. It was more of an anxiety disorder brought on by the environment. We are talking about attentional fragility. There is no longer any question of medication,” the woman says with relief. “All this time, everyone was playing doctor and making assumptions when they knew nothing about them. At school, they made my son’s situation worse. They were not facilitators,” she says.
"Now my child goes to private school and he functions like a normal child. He is not dysfunctional, he is treated well and has very good grades. He is very well supervised," she says.
Although she says she is disgusted by the public education system following this experience, she does not intend to sue anyone for all the harm caused. "I have given up on the School Board and everything that comes with it. Now, we can breathe easier in the private sector. In cases like this, private schools can save children from marginalization," she firmly believes.
A race for diagnostics
According to this mother who fought to give her son a better environment, there is a certain pressure in Quebec to medicate children. Moreover, according to a document obtained by the newspaper La Presse in early 2015, the Quebec government believed that school boards were engaged in a "race" to obtain diagnoses of students with disabilities or learning or adaptation difficulties (EHDAA) and thus receive more subsidies (see text: "Race" for diagnoses in school boards" ).
The figures provided by the Ministry of Education support this since in 2013-2014, the number of students with adaptation or learning difficulties in the public network was 182,162, while in 2004-2005, this number was 147,981. This is an increase of approximately 23% in ten years.
From another point of view, the College of Physicians recently expressed concern about the many ADHD diagnoses issued in recent years and acknowledged that its members were sometimes poorly equipped according to another article in La Presse published in February 2015. (See article: The College of Physicians concerned about the many ADHD diagnoses ).
