A more active parenting after attending Let's Get Organized - Experiences of parents with ADHD.

BACKGROUND: Parenting demands a high degree of attention, planning, and problem-solving, including time management, demands that can be challenging for parents with ADHD. Let's Get Organized (LGO) is an occupational therapy group intervention aiming at developing skills in time management, organisation and planning. There is a need to investigate if LGO may have an impact also on parenting. AIM: To describe how parents with ADHD experienced the intervention, their time management strategies, parenting and family life after the occupational therapy group intervention LGO. METHOD: Interviews were performed with 15 parents with ADHD, after completing LGO. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The findings are described in one overarching main category, Active parenting and better relations within and outside the family through daily time management with three underlying generic categories: Let's Get Organized facilitates empowerment in daily life; The individual and family - both facilitators of and obstacles to implementation of time management strategies; and A changed parenting and family life. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: Participants experienced a positive impact on time management skills after LGO, which generated more active parenting and better predictability in the whole family. LGO can be a valuable intervention for parents with ADHD.

One-year follow-up after the time management group intervention Let's Get Organized.

BACKGROUND: Time management skills are essential to maintain occupations in everyday life. People with neurodevelopmental or mental disorders often experience persistent difficulties with managing time and organizing daily life, consequently, there is a need to establish interventions with sustainable results. AIM: The aim was to perform a one-year post-intervention follow-up after the intervention Let's Get Organized (LGO-S) for people with neurodevelopmental or mental disorders. METHODS: The study is a one-year follow-up of a single group pre-test-post-test design. Thirty-eight persons with difficulties in time management due to neurodevelopmental or mental disorders participated. Instruments to collect data were Assessment of Time Management Skills; Weekly Calendar Planning Activity and the Satisfaction with Daily Occupations instrument. Wilcoxons's signed-rank test was used to compare data over time. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the participants' outcomes between post-intervention and one-year follow-up in time management skills and regulation of emotions, satisfaction with daily occupations, and global satisfaction. A significant improvement could be seen in the subscale organization and planning at the one-year follow-up compared to post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in time management skills, organization, and planning, regulation of emotions, and satisfaction with daily occupations after the LGO-S can be maintained in the long term.