ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
Support network: map the help people have actually agreed to offer
A support network is a group of people or resources someone can turn to for help. Here we make an optional map of ordinary practical support: what has been offered, by whom, and with what limits. Before relying on an offer, ask whether it still applies; do not assume someone is available because they appear on the map.
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
A contact list records how to reach someone. A support map adds the kind of help they have actually agreed to discuss or provide. Knowing a person, being related to them, or naming them in an application is not the same as having that agreement.
Make the offers specific
In a fictional household preparing a school display, one adult offers a ride on the event day. A neighbor offers to lend a folding table if it is still available. A grandparent offers to listen while the student rehearses a short explanation. Each offer concerns a different kind of support.
The student says they want to choose who hears the rehearsal. The household respects that choice in this ordinary project. They do not send the student's draft or personal notes to everyone who appears on the map.
The possible table loan stays marked as unconfirmed. The family can plan another option without accusing the neighbor of breaking a promise that was never made.
Record the offer, not a permanent label
Situation I want help with:
Person or resource:
Help they have actually offered or agreed to discuss:
Limits, availability, or conditions stated:
What information they need for that role:
What I have not agreed to share:
How to ask whether the offer still applies:
“My helper” can hide more than it explains. “Can discuss the event transport plan this week” gives a clearer account of the current arrangement.
Leave room for the person receiving help
A parent can offer to coordinate a practical task without speaking for every preference a child has. A teen can say which sort of support they want to try. An adult receiving help from a partner can ask for company rather than problem-solving. A grandparent or friend can offer one contribution while declining another.
The map can be private and small. It does not need to become a social diagram shared with the whole household. If other people will see it, discuss what details belong there and who can make changes.
Recognize what this map cannot do
It is not a crisis plan, a clinical care plan, an assessment of a relationship, or a substitute for professional or local emergency services. Do not use it to decide who may access another person's records; that question needs its actual setting and appropriate guidance. The map's purpose is to make ordinary offers and limits understandable, not to measure how well-supported someone ought to feel.
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