Social workers' knowledge and attitudes about treating children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

SOCIAL WORKERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES ABOUT TREATINGCHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERby ANGELAH DAWN GOMEZMay 2011Advisor: Dr. Arlene WeiszMajor: Community Practice and Social ActionDegree: Master of Social Work The current research seeks to understand how social work students and social workprofessionals increase their knowledge about AD/HD and how they formulate their attitudesabout the disorder. The literature provided illustrates the many components of AD/HD risks,etiology, treatments, and professional opinions about the disorder. AD/HD is one of the moststudied childhood mental health disorders in the nation. However, there is little researchproviding insight to social workers’ knowledge and attitudes about the disorder. This isespecially alarming because social workers are one of the largest professional populations toprovide mental health services to children and their families. Practitioners’ knowledge and attitudes about the disorders has an impact on the patient-clinician relationship. It can have an affect the likelihood that the client will adhere to the treatment plan and it affects the professionalrelationship between the clinician and other treatment professionals.