'Unveiling myself: Why I'm writing this blog as a neurodiverse social worker'

Like most things in my life, I find myself doing things that I never imagined because I speak up for what matters, talk to random people and love to share my knowledge with the world.

Last year, I was at the Social Work Show in Manchester, not because I needed a job, just to network because I'm an Independent Social Worker. After speaking to the team about the under-representation of neurodiversity in social work and the lack of awareness and information out there. Before I knew it, a 5-minute conversation had led to me being asked to speak at the next event in London on 'why neurodiversity matters in social work'.

Of course, I accepted because as a woman with ADHD, I'm going to randomly decide to public speak at a conference about a subject I'm passionate about on a whim! Did I have a presentation prepared? No! Could I write one with hyperfocus in chunks over a few days? Absolutely!

Fast forward a month to the day of the conference and off I went to Mayfair, in my brightly coloured, patterned dress and Doc Martens, to spend the day networking before giving my workshop at the end of the day. I'll be honest, I questioned if people would stay until the end to hear me speak, I questioned if the topic was important enough for people's time and if I was truly qualified to talk on the subject.

Speaking at the event reminded me that people do care about neurodiversity in this field, and as a social worker with ADHD, I have a unique perspective, lessons and insights to share with the social work community.

Let me tell you I went into that conference room with my only agenda to impart knowledge, raise awareness and encouraging social workers to think about, and champion neurodiversity in social work.

And it's fair to say, all of my earlier worries were unfounded - the conference room was packed out with people still coming in after other workshops and standing in the back! The audience was fully engaged and curious about what I had to say, I got a round of applause at the end, with people staying to ask questions and even emailing me after to tell me how much they enjoyed listening to what I had to say!

When I reflected after the conference, I reminded myself that neurodiversity is still a relatively new concept to people and – given that around 20% of the population are neurodiverse, myself included – it's not something that is going away any time soon. The feedback I've had since my diagnosis, the work I've done with a coach and the lessons that I've learnt, is that by me unmasking and sharing with the world what I've learnt, I inspire others to do the same, to be more aware, use their knowledge to help others and to help themselves thrive.

So that's basically how I ended up deciding to write a blog for Social Work Today, because of a random conversation last year! The topics? I'm leaving that open for now and I'm open to any reader suggestions. What I want to share with you is the strengths and the challenges, the duality of neurodiversity and what it's like from the lens of a neurodiverse social worker, and for neurodiverse families that we work with. And let's face it, I have ADHD, so I'm going to keep it interesting, diverse and with real life experiences and humour thrown in too.

I am genuinely excited to unmask within the social world community, help people understand what neurodiversity is (and isn't) and share my own journey with you, in the hope that it might help others, and inspire others within social work.