Here’s What We’re Getting Wrong About ADHD

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Jenny Okolo (1:00)

Oh, everybody has ADHD. No, it's not the case. How do you know what kind of help to seek if you're not looking within yourself and at least questioning, why am I acting like this?

Dr Faye Bate (1:12)

Neurodivergent people are still expected to fit into systems that often misunderstand the way they think. That's why today I'm sitting down with Jenny Okolo, Mental Health Occupational Therapist and TEDx Speaker to talk about ADHD and Autism at Work and what happens when systems fail, neurodivergent people. An estimated 50% of people in the UK criminal justice system are neurodivergent.

Jenny Okolo (1:36)

It's important for people to be able to identify difficulties that they might be facing and from there get support. What I've heard even from my clients is where they've felt the best support is when it comes to the people they love.

Dr Faye Bate (1:50)

But before we get into the episode, if you could do one small thing that takes two minutes, subscribe to the YouTube channel or follow us on Spotify. It allows us to keep bringing you episodes for free to help you live a happier, healthier life.

Thank you. You've had an especially interesting career route as a occupational therapist in a prison. So can you tell me more about how you've ended up where you are today?

Jenny Okolo (2:15)

Yeah, absolutely. So my career hasn't, it hasn't been as linear as most people would think. So I graduated in 2018 I studied occupational therapy and most people would compare it to occupational health. Not the case. Occupational health is completely different. We are health professionals who work to support people with different disabilities, physical health conditions, mental health conditions, and getting them back to a daily function that maintains their quality of life. And we work in different settings. I have colleagues who work in schools, in hospitals, and yeah, I ended up working in a prison. But before I went into working in prisons, I've always had a huge interest in psychiatry in general from a young age.

And I've spoken about this before, like where I grew up, I grew up in Southeast London. And in my neighborhood, I had a particular neighbor who clearly had a mental health condition. I didn't know what he had at the time. But we sort of knew in our neighborhood that there was something there but still try to support as much as possible. So that was my first encounter, I would say. And then of course, at university, learn more about different conditions. As part of the course, you have to go on placement.

And my first placement wasn't that great.

But my second placement was in forensic mental health. And again, when you hear forensic, some people might be like, oh my gosh, dead people. No, it's nothing to do with that. It just means that it's working in psychiatry, but with people who've gone through or are in the criminal justice system. So I enjoyed my placement in that type of setting, going on the wards and just seeing a different light to mental health compared to what was portrayed on social media. So I enjoyed that so much, and in my final placement, they sent me to Broadmoor. And again, I had all these, you know, ideas about Broadmoor before, like, oh my gosh, it's this prison. And first of all, it's not a prison, it's a hospital. But again, I had an amazing time there. I learned so much and all my biases and judgment that I did have beforehand completely went away because I saw the amazing work that all the health professionals were putting into it. We have, yeah, you do have people who are really unworldly, but you also have people who are trying to get better, who are even working there doing activities. So that really solidified. I wanted to go down this path and worked in the community, worked in hospitals, and then I thought, you know what, let me try working in a prison. And that's kind of how I got into that setting. And working in a prison was tough. Being in prison in general, just by the thought of the environment, can be quite difficult. It's very, very restrictive. And I was working in a Cat B prison as well. So the different cats are just depending on the risk of the people that you have there. And working as an occupational therapist there, you know, you're working with a small team. And oftentimes I was the only one there. And there were thousands of inmates. So although I enjoyed the experience, it was really hard to kind of see what was coming out of the work that I was doing, just because of how difficult it was. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to help everyone. But I had an amazing team. And yeah, I'm so glad that I had the experience to do that. I've worked in various different settings. I always like to say I created my own rotation. Just sort of moved around.