HISTORY OF THE BLACK RUSSIAN TERRIER

 

A.D.H.D., AUTISM AND DOGS

Creating awareness on diagnosis and available interventions

As the director of Kirangi Dogs I, happen to be an Occupational Therapist as well. Occupational therapists work with patients that have diverse conditions, among them being Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (A. S D.).

 During my college years, the years I worked with the ministry of Health and private practice, I have worked with families and individuals who have these two conditions. Of great concern to me is the huge gap in terms of knowledge, awareness, lack of diagnosis, myths and misunderstandings surrounding these two conditions within our population.

As a result, I set my heart to one day launch a forum that can create awareness on these two conditions through educating our people on their incidences, symptoms, how they affect the individual, families and communities, and the available medical and therapeutic interventions. However, I did not know where to begin and how to reach people until I started working with dogs…yes…dogs! Strange as it may sound, dogs have taught me a lot on how to help affected persons and their families. As I write this piece, I have worked with dogs for over 17 years, breeding and training my own dogs and those of other people.

So how do dogs fit into this whole thing? In interaction with dogs and their owners,  I started noticing that individuals with certain conditions like A.D.H.D., stress, depression, autism and anxiety appear to get greater improvement by just interacting with their dogs. During my studies on dog training, I came across a class of dogs that were being trained to assist people suffering from physical and mental dysfunctions. They are called service dogs. I cannot express the thrill I got from this because I realized my area of expertise and my hobby could merge into one big dream.  The dream of working with dogs and people affected with A.D.H.D and Autism spectrum disorder.

Consequently, I can confidently say that dogs have given me the open door to create awareness, work with individuals suffering from these two conditions, coach families and educators on diagnosis and available interventions and avail trained assistance dogs that can assist some of the affected individuals cope with their conditions.

 We are profoundly excited as the Kirangi Dogs family to finally launch this long-awaited dream!    We want to work with individuals and families, that are in one way or another affected by A.D.D.H. and Autism which is correctly referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (A.S.D) among other sensory processing disorders.  We have got lots of information, strategies and science-based interventions to share with our communities.

Persons who suffer especially from A.D.H.D. in our country have been suffering a lot because this condition is largely unrecognized and not diagnosed in most cases therefore denying the affected persons the opportunity to get the help they disparately need at school, home, and later on in their adult lives. The main reason is, that these people generally appear normal until one interacts with them when they are performing daily tasks and activities of daily living then realize how A.D.H.D. has affected their ability to be attentive and use their executive function and working memory engage in occupational performance.

Remember that the information we are sharing here is for the purpose of creating awareness and NOT for use to make a diagnosis or treatment. Diagnosis and treatment must always be sought from qualified medical personnel who are qualified to offer such services.

A.D.H.D. generally appears at the age of four years though it can develop later on due to trauma on the brain.  The affected children will exhibit most or some of the following behaviors. 

a)       Failure to give attention to details

b)       Difficulty sustaining attention

c)       Seemingly not listening

d)       Inability to organize tasks and activities

e)       Forgetful and easily distracted

f)        Avoiding tasks that require sustained mental effort

g)       Fidgety

h)       Walks away from their sits inappropriately

i)         Running about and climbing excessively

j)         Difficulty playing quietly

k)       Always on the go as if running on a motor

l)         Excessive talking

m)     Blurts out insults without provocation and displays emotional lability where they may cry or laugh in situations where such emotional outbursts are not warranted.

n)       Blurts out answers before questions are completed

o)       Has difficulty waiting for their turn in a queue, playtime, etc.

p)       Interrupts and intrudes into others

These symptoms must be exhibited by the individual in more than one environment for them to be used in the diagnosis of A.D.H.D. For example, they must appear when the child is at home and school and when engaging in leisure and play. 

Unfortunately, these symptoms lead to the affected persons being labeled as lacking discipline, lazy, rude, and generally unruly.  They get a lot of punishment, corrections, stigma and isolation.  Many of them fall out of school or keep on changing schools.  Their academic performance, social interactions are so much affected that they cannot live normal lives. Others have died early or sustained life-threatening injuries due to their impulsive, inattentive behaviors.  Still, many of the affected individuals have ended up in juvenile prisons and rehabilitation centers, substance abuse, depression and suicide during their early years of life.

As adults, individuals with A.D.H.D. may struggle keeping a job, maintaining relationships, are easily distracted by low-priority activities or external events that others tend to ignore and suffer from thought and emotional dysregulation.  They struggle to complete tasks, even ones that seem simple and tend to overlook details, leading to errors or incomplete work.

A.D.H.D. crosses into adulthood and its effects are quite debilitating as we will see in the upcoming blogs, seminars zoom meetings and coaching events. Adults with A.D.H.D. show poor listening skills and have a hard time remembering conversations and following directions.  They display time blindness, keep on procrastinating, and appear to lack motivation to finish tasks that are not exciting to them.

Persons with A.D.H.D get easily bored and seek new and more entertaining activates.  Some may get into depression, anxiety, violent crimes, imprisonment, and substance abuse. Due to being impulsive in their actions, they can easily get into road accidents and a good number of them have caused serious accidents while driving.

There are many ways that A.D.H.D. can affect an individual’s life if not diagnosed and proper treatment and intervention offered.

Though A.D.H.D.is not curable, it is treatable. Affected persons can receive treatment, different types of therapies and interventions that can enable them achieve their goals, cope with their symptoms or reduce them altogether.  In fact, there are very many individuals with this condition who have excelled highly in education, business, careers, including medicine and law.

There is a lot of help that can be offered to help this people, and their families including trained psychiatric dogs. 

Dogs trained to work with persons with A.D.H.D. can assist in the following areas.

a)       Disrupt harmful behaviors before they escalate

b)       Improve working memory

c)       Improve focus and attention

d)       Prevent and manage emotional melt downs in crowded areas and social events

e)       Minimize frustrations and trouble relaxing

f)        Avoidance of physical problems like neck and back pain due to maintaining one posture for too long e.g. using computers for too long

g)       Emotional regulation

h)       Offer therapy procedures like deep pressure therapy

At Kirangi dogs, we are committed to walk the journey with as many as we can reach in our country, Kenya. We wish to work with affected individual and families.  We want to see this condition addressed effectively within our health and education sectors, with affected persons being given the interventions they deserve. We want those who can benefit with psychiatric service dogs get the help that we can avail.

Together we can face A.D.H.D. and AUTISM with hope and courage. We can reduce the stigma and misinformation associated with these two conditions.

For more details, assistance and corroborations, We can be reached through the following communication channels:

Phone +254 785 535 569

e-mail kirangidogs@gmail.com