PDA Day 2022

PDA Day is on 15^th May and this year our focus is on research.

More research is key because 70% of people say lack of understanding about PDA is a barrier to getting help, and research will lead to better understanding, improved practice and better outcomes for PDA individuals and their families.

Promoting high quality research, informed by what matters most to the PDA community, is one of our 5 year goals and we have lots of exciting plans to make this happen. This will include launching a consultation survey on PDA Day asking the PDA community to tell us their top unanswered questions about PDA (which will inform a national call to action for more PDA research) and a research conference in 2023.

You can help on PDA Day by:

• Completing our consultation survey to help establish the top unanswered questions about PDA

• Joining our “Stepping up for PDA” campaign (where we’re aiming to complete 1.5 million steps together as a community in May), or raising funds in other ways, to help us hit our £5k research target

• Raising awareness by hosting events and/or sharing information online with the hashtag #PDAday

To participate in the research survey, you can:

• sign up to our monthly newsletter and we’ll email it to you on PDA Day
• follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn for the link
• visit the news section of our website between 15^th May and 14^th June 2022 and look for our PDA Day 2022 newsletter there

To join in with our ‘Stepping up for PDA’ fundraising activities, please email info@pdasociety.org.uk and we’ll send more information. If you’d like to donate, please visit www.gofundme.com/f/stepping-up-for-pda.

Our PDA Day pack has lots of ideas and resources for hosting awareness events and fundraising activities. Below is a list of plans people have already shared with us – please let us know if you make any PDA Day plans so we can share them as well 😊

• Julia’s handmade gift auction in aid of the PDA Society, 6^th-13^th May on Facebook
• Positively PDA Clubhouse App event, 15^th May
• The PDA Space is offering free access to all the PDA Summit webinars on PDA Day
• Tracey Smith is doing a PDA Day skydive to raise awareness of PDA and funds for the PDA Society
• Clare Truman at Spectrum Space is planning to dunk 15 litres of environmentally friendly slime over her head for PDA Day. Last year she bravely had 15 custard pies thrown in her face – watch the video here
• Ask Me Anything! PDA Day 15th May with Kyra at The Prism Cat: Reflections on Neurodiversity on Facebook

As usual, we’d love to see your colourful ‘pandalas’ and PDA Panda ears photos, either on social media with the hashtag #PDAday or via email (if you’re happy for us to share with others). We’ve created this PDA Day profile picture for everyone who’d like to show their support to use on social media (our usual Facebook frame is unfortunately no longer available as Facebook has recently changed who can upload frames).