When Nellie Edin Hjalmar from Växjö was to choose high school, she was told that she could not apply for police training later, because she has an ADHD diagnosis.

For Nellie, this was a shock, as she has dreamed of the police profession all her life, which Smålandsposten has told about before.

- Then I got angry and wrote an article in a newspaper to get more people to pay attention to this.

Now the dream is not far away for Nellie, who will have the opportunity to test her suitability on an individual test, instead of being written off directly from the education.

"Living in old legislation"

It was at the end of June that the Discrimination Ombudsman ruled that it was discriminated against by the Armed Forces and the Duty and Trials Agency to exclude persons with an NPF diagnosis from the enlistment.

The police authority immediately chose to change its own policy due to the DO's decision, starting this autumn.

- It's good, you are not your diagnosis, we usually say, says Magnus Mjörnman from Attention Kronoberg.

Attention Kronoberg is an interest group for people with neuropsychiatric disabilities (NPF), such as ADHD, Tourette's syndrome and autism.

They have long pushed the issue of opening up education for more people.

- Everything like this goes slowly, you still live in an old legislation.

But it was lucky that it happened in 2021 and not 2031, says Magnus Mjörnman.

Police do not open with the diagnosis

As an ADHD diagnosis is expressed differently from person to person, this does not exclude that there are police officers who have been diagnosed later in life, after completing their education.

- Of course there are police officers with an NPF diagnosis, but people are not open about having the diagnosis, says Ola Kronkvist, head of police training in Växjö.

The change in recruitment will not significantly affect Linnaeus University's police training.

- We have very excellent routines for making a teaching that is accessible to everyone regardless of functional variation, says Ola Kronkvist and adds:

- I hope this increases knowledge about NPF diagnoses in society.