Dilemma - Misinformation - Infuriated

Hi Expecto_Patronum 

That to me is a nasty and distressing experience/situation to have  

were it me...

I realis that personally it can take me a long time to "decompress" from that sort of thing and it'd keep going around and around my head - that said I'd do my best not to react immediately and take a day or 2 to "simmer down" a bit from it before anything else otherwise i'd be "down a rabbit hole" of wanting to right the wrong and would probably get so focussed on it that other things could suffer.  As for finishing the course personally and I wouldn't force myself to watch any stuff that's distressing me as much as that clearly is - no point burning oneself just to prove a flame is hot to other people...

Then comes what to write report and such...  This ends up to be true to oneself and the subject probably as presenting a critique to others about it - personally I'm caught in the middle of trying to do a similar thing and it's taken/taking it's toll on me and getting allies to help isn't easy however so ultimately I'd be judging how much energy I had for the task... Anyway if it helps: for to those glaring errors you raise: eg the genetics for ADHD then this https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342100049X  is internationally valid and is "Oxford Level 1" evidence - meaning that it's a systematic review of the "meta-analysis" - there isn't as far as I'm aware any better scientific analysis one can get. www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/.../oxford-centre-for-evidence-based-medicine-levels-of-evidence-march-2009       And the "level" of autism that is disabling - that's a "hot potato" disagreement sometimes.      The UK government as far as I'm aware identifies autism as a disability under the 2010 Equality Act.  Personally I think of my self more disabled by the neurotypical environment that I live in rather than from autism per se but whatever way it's packaged I find myself in practice disabled as "level 1" autistic.  So there's the clear and simple brief evidence to refute the outdated approach that you describe having been given - if there's a text resource or presentation they've shared that says otherwise they are "nailed" if it was verbal or not formally recorded then that's a harder thing to address but there could be ways...

Then how to bring the evidence to bear...  In my experience this is where it gets tough because of the social communication and social dynamics that I know from personal experience I find hard to negotiate - probably a good "lever" would be in terms of health and safety and duty of care for the children concerned rather than a personal grievance and even then I  personally wouldn't expect the report to be welcomed and acted upon with good grace.  I've encountered situations where some people react by perceived things as "naming and shaming" rather than being a really important thing to address for all concerned. My experience is that a lot of people in authority are personally risk averse rather then risk managers...

Drafting a formal e-mail to the line manager or CPD lead saying what my experience is and requesting them to tell me how to proceed I think would be psychologically hard for me to do but probably the best way to secure an all round best cover for outcome and risk.  Before sending it I'd fact check a couple of times at least and then sleep on it as well.  If they push back then asking the course provider for the peer reviewed evidence for what they've presented and then nail them with the evidence from a couple of paras previously seems an appropriate next move.

I get what you say about doubting the rest of the contents - these days tho' checking the subject for veracity is really pretty easy given available resources (not to say that going thro' all the papers oneself isn't a bad idea just time is often restricted and monotropism can be a dual edged sword...)   In context the old adage: "those who can do..." maybe springs to mind.

If they said well you have to complete the course and answer according to the answers they expect (eg they say they are experts so their evidence is Oxford level 5 and that's what they expect you to give....)  then if my job depended upon it it might be possible to get creative with answers - something like "the course taught that...." in the answers you give keeps it as a "hoop jumping" exercise which would pass the test if they insist on those being the answers you have to give to pass the test rather than presenting it as what is true - although the "can of worms" is still there it isn't a personal can of worms, and from the e-mail it's been passed it up to the line manager and CPD lead to resolve and for another day is the "what do I do if they don't do anything about it?" question.

Hopefully the NAS mod who picks up this post for review will have suggestions for how to escalate this thro' the NAS if necessary for further support.  Personally I'd hold off on the "nuclear option" of reporting this more publicly at least until the people involved have had due and proper opportunity to put things right - and even then from personal experience I'd still be thinking very carefully about what my resources were for getting into a public fight in a workplace situation notwithstanding how ethically and morally right one can be it still is very hard to do the right thing in a world that very often for whatever reasons doesn't want to... but hopefully it won't get to that and the line manger and CPD lead will come in as allies to resolve the concerns.

Needless to say I'm sad that you've had this sort of experience on a topic that you really hoped would be more enlightened and I hope you're feeling better about things by the time you read this.

Personally I've dealt with this sort of thing in a workplace where there's been mixed responses and although I've got experience and maybe even insight I appreciate that it's a lot easier for me to write this than to actually do and in truth I am burnt out somewhat from having done this sort of thing myself for too long without enough support or care for myself - so please don't take this as personal advice to you - more of what my route map would look like and even then I personally would be doing my best to be especially kind to myself and make sure I cared as much for myself as the other people in all this.

Best Wishes

Thank you for taking the time to write this. It is a very balanced response. With the help of chat gpt I have drafted an email to send to the company but I have sent it to myself to look at at a later date. I'm definitely going to give myself more time before I respond. I will speak to work before I go any further with raising the issue with the company providing the training. Depending on what response I get from work, I can then think about what to do next.

I was just in total shock at what I was hearing from a professional providing training.

Thank you for the link to the research. That kind of thing is very helpful should I want to go further.

Pleased to support Expecto_Patronum 

Glad you've got a draft response prepared and I know from experience this is challenging - you are, for what my opinion is worth, primarily interested in doing the right thing for others and that's noble.

Best wishes

Strong possibility I'll be back at some point to discuss this further but for now I'm going to attempt to put it to one side.

Strong possibility I'll be back at some point to discuss this further but for now I'm going to attempt to put it to one side.