UNCG program to help ADHD students is drawing attention

Posted on August 06, 2015

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Dr. Arthur Anastopoulos, professor of human development and family studies and ADHD Clinic director at UNCG

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On July 9, 2015 News & Record reported that UNCG professor Dr. Arthur Anastopoulos’s (Human Health and Family Studies) received a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study the effectiveness of UNCG’s ACCESS (Accessing Campus Connections and Empowering Student Success) program. ACCESS mentors students with ADHD, helping them with time-management and critical thinking skills. ACCESS is a vital program for students with ADHD, since:

“Only about 20 percent of high school students with ADHD go on to college and only about 25 percent of those earn a degree.…According to Anastopoulos, many college students with ADHD don’t fully understand their disorder and aren’t able to cope easily in a demanding college environment. Slightly more than half of those with ADHD also suffer from depression, anxiety or another learning disorder”

Dr. Anastopoulos has worked and directed the UNCG ADHD Clinic since 1996. In 2011, Anastopoulous worked with Appalachian State and East Carolina through a $3 million grant for the College STAR (Supporting Transition, Access and Retention) program. Through this grant, UNCG’s research team created ACCESS.

Dr. Anastopoulos’s recent grant would cover four years of research, working alongside Joshua Langbeg, from Virginia Commonwealth University’s psychology department. At both campuses, 24 freshman will be recruited: half of the students will start ACCESS in the fall, and half won’t begin the program until their sophomore year. Recruited students will receive free ADHD evaluations, which can cost several hundred dollars. Although early results are promising, Anastopoulos wants to use this research grant to study more students over longer time periods. Anastopoulos “…hopes that the new research — UNCG says it’s the first large controlled study of college students with ADHD that doesn’t involve medication — could point the way to something that could help these students thrive.”

Learn more at http://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/uncg-program-to-help-adhd-students-is-drawing-attention/article_10ce8694-0e3e-11e5-b430-1760b3f2da02.html

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