Ending the Hot Potato Blame Game!
Note to Reader: In this article, we explore how neurodivergent people are often passed between services in a cycle of blame and avoidance, what we’re calling the “hot potato” of responsibility. When no one takes ownership, support is delayed or denied, leaving people exhausted and underserved. We’ll unpack the real impact of this system and what needs to change to build services that truly support neurodivergent lives.
Topic: Neurodivergence, Health Services, Inclusion, Accessibility, Advocacy, Burnout
Imagine playing a game of hot potato: you’re holding a ball, but it’s too hot to keep, so you toss it to the next person as quickly as possible. They do the same, and the cycle continues - no one wants to hold onto it. Now, replace the ball with responsibility, and you have the way many systems treat neurodivergent people’s support needs: a never-ending game of hot potato blame.
Instead of taking responsibility, services pass the problem around. Each agency, department, or professional claims it’s someone else’s job, leaving neurodivergent people stuck in an exhausting cycle of referrals, denials, and dead ends. This system creates unnecessary delays, exacerbates distress, and often leaves people without the support they desperately need.
The Consequences of Hot Potato Blame
By constantly passing the problem, no service is ever held accountable, and neurodivergent people are left unsupported. Instead of a system designed to provide care, it becomes a system designed to shift responsibility, ensuring that no one ever has to deal with the “hot potato” for too long.
This failure isn’t just frustrating, it has real consequences. Delays in diagnosis lead to years of unnecessary struggle. Lack of appropriate medical care results in untreated conditions. Mental health support remains inaccessible because services refuse to work with neurodivergent clients. People are left burnt out, unemployed, and without access to the very accommodations they are legally entitled to.
How Do We End the Hot Potato Blame Game?
Ending this cycle requires systemic change:
Clear accountability: Services must be responsible for following through on support rather than redirecting people elsewhere.
Integrated services: Education, healthcare, and employment support need to communicate, rather than functioning as isolated silos.
Training and awareness: Professionals must be educated on neurodivergence so they stop treating it as an excuse to deny support.
Funding and policy change: Systems must be designed to meet neurodivergent people’s needs rather than shifting them around indefinitely.
Until responsibility is taken, neurodivergent people will continue to be treated as problems to be passed on rather than people in need of real, meaningful support. The hot potato needs to stop.
Have you experienced being passed from service to service?
Explore this topic further by joining our ND Perspective community.
Supporting and Celebrating our Neurodivergent Community,
Jess x x