Remote Delivery of Psychosocial Intervention for College Students with ADHD during COVID-19: Clinical Strategies, Practice Recommendations, and Future Considerations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented social-emotional stressor significantly impacting intervention services for at-risk college students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In order to succeed in the new remote learning context, students are tasked with employing strong organizational, time management, and planning skills. They must self-regulate thoughts, actions, and emotions, inhibit task-irrelevant activity, and cope with unprecedented stressors. These ingredients for success nearly completely overlap with the core dysfunctions of ADHD. Recognizing the importance of providing psychosocial services during this high-risk time and in response to social distancing and university guidelines, we initiated a telehealth version of our program for college students with ADHD (i.e., SUCCEEDS). In the current paper, we describe novel and creative clinical strategies designed to assist students with ADHD in problem solving, adaptive coping, organizational skills, and time management strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we: (1) detail the initial set-up of remote delivery services and supervision, (2) describe key components of the SUCCEEDS program developed to support students' unique needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) present focus group and qualitative feedback from SUCCEEDS coaches and students, (4) provide an illustrative case vignette of application, and (5) discuss future directions and "lessons learned" in moving SUCCEEDS to a remote platform. In so doing, our hope is to contribute to an ongoing dialog surrounding optimal delivery of remote services to college students with ADHD, particularly during high-risk periods.

Impact of COVID-19 for people living and working with ADHD: A brief review of the literature

“…Given the restrictions around face-to-face interventions, adapted remote psycho-social interventions present a promising alternative to the traditional models for a range of conditions [41] – [47] , and this is also true for ADHD [48] . Examples of successful ADHD psychosocial interventions that have been delivered remotely include a parent training group [49] , a programme for college students [50] and a brief intervention programme [51] . Overall, tele-interventions have been identified to have a number of possible benefits including, reduced wait times, providing access to more geographically remote populations, and reduced financial stressors, such as travel or taking time off work [52] .…”

Intelligent Recognition of Hospital Image Based on Deep Learning: The Relationship between Adaptive Behavior and Family Function in Children with ADHD

“…In particular, with the improvement of science and technology, we can use the corresponding technology to transform the recognized objects into images or a series of data, namely, graphics and digitization. [21,22]. But to recognize a pattern (whether it is data or image), extract its features, and then classify the features, the image recognition system shall include the following parts, and the system block diagram is shown in Figure 2: e first part is to get the information about the image.…”

Affective Symptoms and Traumatic Stress Among College Students at Risk for ADHD During the Second Lockdown in Greece

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with ADHD have been facing noticeable challenges x changes in their symptoms, such as an increase in careless mistakes, disorganization, and reduced motivation (Hamilton et al, 2021;Oddo et al, 2021;Zhao et al, 2021). Individuals with ADHD are particularly sensitive to sudden changes in routines that manifest in disruptions through all aspects of life and a deterioration in their overall lives (Çetin et al, 2020;Hollingdale et al, 2021;Sibley et al, 2021).…”

“…College students were unexpectedly displaced from their dormitories peer groups and were forced to abandon their college experience. They were required to suddenly leave campus -often without their belongings -while they were instructed to continue their academic work remotely (Copeland et al, 2021;Oddo et al, 2021). Soon, research indicated the effects on mental health.…”