‘You become your child’s full-time advocate’

“Therefore, they get no support, and their children get no support,” says Collins, who wants to see an “equity of care” made available in the Valley.

She has been trying to organize a support group of some kind for the last few years on her own, to no avail.

“There has to be a plan that provides the same level of support for people across social strata and level of education. There has to be a way to provide it across our county where all people can take advantage of it.”

Now, with the help of Kings North MLA John Lohr, she might be within reach of providing that equity of care to her community.

Lohr became involved when he realized he was often plugging ADHD support networks out of Dartmouth, such as the Excalibur ADHD Association, and wanted to start adding some local groups as well.

“I started looking for the Valley ADHD support groups, and just couldn’t find one,” says Lohr.

Lohr was put in contact with Collins, and also reached out to Maya Warnock of Excalibur, and they were able to put together an ADHD info session for Feb. 7.

Warnock will be there to talk about ADHD to local parents, but if there’s enough interest from the community, she’ll also be willing to provide resources to help set up a Kings County chapter.

“We will need people to step forward and take roles on in that, if it’s going to happen,” says Lohr. “I think there’s enough interest - it’s just a matter of somebody saying, OK, let’s make this work.”

Collins says parents can’t rely on politicians or an overwhelmed healthcare system to provide this network for the community.

“I’m hoping that lots of people come out,” she says. “It has to be built from the ground up in the community if it’s going to work and if it’s going to be sustainable.”