Children and Adults with AD/HD (CHADD) improves the lives of people affected by AD/HD.

CHADD operates the National Resource Center on AD/HD, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CHADD is also readily able to disseminate information through a variety of media: ATTENTION magazine, which is published six times a year and has a circulation of 86,000 and a readership of almost 100,000; the CHADD Web site (www.chadd.org), which averages 3.5 million hits a month by 75,000 unique visitors; the newly created NRC/ADHD Web site (www.help4adhd.org), which had 26,685 unique visitors in June 2003; and the 235 chapter network.

CHADD currently has 200 affiliates, including in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.  All of the support group and chapter coordinators are volunteers. While most of the chapters began as parent support groups, the number of adult support groups is increasing. The success of these local groups depends on the energy, skill, dedication, and consistency of these parent volunteers. Local, face-to-face support is available to individuals living in these 200 communities and who have the benefit of skillful and committed local CHADD leaders.

CHADD strives to implement the Surgeon General's report, Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity as well as the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health report, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. Over the past two years, CHADD has conducted 10 community forums on AD/HD and related childhood mental disorders with an emphasis on outreach to the African-American and Hispanic/Latino communities.

CHADD's priority public policy issue is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). CHADD serves as a co-chair of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Task Force on Education. Last year, CHADD organized the Children's Behavioral Alliance (CBA), which is a coalition comprised of national organizations with a high interest in behavioral issues and IDEA. A January 2003 report from the CBA, In the Best Interests of All: A Position Paper of the Children's Behavioral Alliance, can be found on the CHADD Web site (www.chadd.org).

CHADD's public policy involvement at the local level remains limited to a handful of states, as CHADD is organized in communities by only parent volunteers and individuals with AD/HD. Partnerships with Federal Agencies, Other Organizations, and Medical Groups In addition to the CDC-funded NRC/ADHD, CHADD has a contract through the American Institutes for Research (AIR) with the Center for Mental Health Services to promote diversity and cultural competence.

CHADD works through the following coalitions:

Campaign for Mental Health Reform, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) External Partners Group (EPG),

Children's Behavioral Alliance (CBA),

 Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Education and Employment & Training Task Forces,

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition,

Mental Health Liaison Group,

National Consortium for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services,

National Health Council,

National Prevention Coalition,

Outcomes Roundtable for Children and Families,

and Public Sector Group.

CHADD has cooperative working agreements with the following sister national associations:

The REACH Foundation;

The National Medical Association section on psychiatry and behavioral science;

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry;

American Academy of Pediatrics;

Public Policy Research Institute,

Children and Psychotropic Medication Task Force;

Campaign for Mental Health Reform;

Mental Health Liaison Group;

National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality.

More information on Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, CHADD, the NRC and links to local support and publications can be found at its website www.chadd.org or the NRC website at www.help4adhd.org

CHADD was founded in 1987 by a small group of parents of children with AD/HD and two treating psychologists in Plantation, Florida (near Miami). These parents came together because they felt frustrated and isolated, and there were few places to turn for support and information about AD/HD.

http://www.chaddleadershipblog.blogspot.com/