Hands Autism Services

Transcription

1 Hands Autism Services Serving the Districts of Nipissing, Parry Sound, Muskoka, Cochrane and Timiskaming Newsletter for Parents February 2012 Welcome to another edition of the Hands Newsletter for Parents/Guardians. Hands TheFamilyHelpNetwork.ca hopes that everyone s New Year is off to a great start! Hands Autism Services Autism Intervention Program Autism Enhanced Respite Services Behaviour Communication Therapy Services School Support Program-Autism Spectrum Disorder Parent Advisory Committee for Autism Services Committee Role: To provide a forum for parents to advise Hands managers on the operations of Autism Services and to discuss areas of importance or interest regarding the community, province or Ministry initiatives. To oversee the approval of funding decisions for Enhanced Respite applications. Michael Berry, Senior Manager, Autism Services ( ext. 1310) Autism Enhanced Respite Services The Autism Enhanced Respite program has had a very successful year. We have approved a record number of applications for special activities (up 12% from 2010). The number of crisis applications have also increased 5% from We have funds remaining which have to be spent by March 31st, 2012 the end of our fiscal year. Please see the attached flyer for information on how you can take advantage of this opportunity to provide respite for your child. Enhanced Respite Services staff: (705) (Interim) Coordinator: Melissa Krause (ext. 1317) Manager: José Vince (ext. 1286) 1

2 Staff s Corner The following is written by Peggy Sakaluk (SSP-ASD Consultant)... Transitioning to adulthood is a lengthy and individualized process, needing flexible and collaborative planning. Everyone needs to have access to information about potential community supports well before 18 years of age. Our families are in great need of this information. A planning committee, comprising a variety of interested partners, organized a first-of-its-kind event addressing the need to share community information about the availability of transition-toadult services. The event, Transition to Adulthood took place on January 19th at Nipissing University. Initially, the Nipissing Parry Sound Catholic District School Board, Hands SSP-ASD and Nipissing University planned a school board presentation on transition to post-secondary. It became clearer that a larger, community-wide event was needed to tackle the broader issues of life after high school, including employment, finances, safety, day programs, residential living, other education alternatives and mental health supports. Behaviour Communication Therapy (BCT) The Behaviour Communication Therapist supports and assists parents with setting goals for teaching children new skills focused on positive behaviour change. We continue to experience success with our BCT service. We continue to evaluate our service model and make changes in order to meet family s needs. We are in the process of filling a maternity leave vacancy in the Bracebridge and Muskoka Region. Our goal is to further reduce waitlists in both Nipissing and Muskoka Regions. There are currently 32 people on the waitlist for Nipissing District and 70 people in Muskoka District. Behaviour Communication Therapists: Nipissing: Virginia Trott (ext. 1350) Muskoka/Parry Sound: Vicky Nicholson (maternity leave) (ext. 3235) More partners were invited to assist with the planning including Autism Ontario and Community Living North Bay. The final event offered over 15 displays and a discussion panel speaking to experiences that have shaped transitions in the past. We thank Autism Ontario North Bay Chapter for offering to sponsor this much needed event. 2

3 Autism Intervention Program (AIP) The Autism Intervention Program provides Intensive Behavioural Intervention for children diagnosed with moderate to severe autism. The AIP staff work diligently to continue to meet the most recent clinical and government standards in all areas of programming and staffing. Training for Parents: The North-East Autism Intervention Program is adopting the Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) curriculum as part of our training offered to parents. The curriculum consists of six two hour group workshops and six one hour individual training sessions for each family enrolled. The individual sessions will be interspersed between the group workshops and will consist of a Training Coach visiting the family home at a mutually convenient time, assisting the parents in implementing the strategies learned at the previous group session. The Training Coach will review and model the strategies learned at the group sessions, then observe the parent as he or she implements them with the child. The training coach also provides helpful feedback. We are currently preparing a training session for staff who will be working as Training Coaches. It is anticipated that the first training session to be piloted in North Bay, will begin in either late March or early April, Parents with children currently on the IBI waitlist will be the first group invited to participate. They will be contacted with specific dates and times in the near future. Other interested parents are also invited to contact Hands to enroll and will be included if there is space available. Move to 820 Lakeshore Drive: North Bay and area Autism staff and their programs will be moving to 820 Lakeshore Dr. during the week of March (March break). Please come by and visit us at the new site. It will be a very nice facility. AIP Clinical Managers North South or Clinical Director Dr Karen Grattan-Miscio (PhD) (ext. 1327) Clinical Supervisor Jennifer Roussy M.A. (BCBA Candidate) (ext. 1311) Clinical Supervisor (Nipissing Consultant) Clinical Supervisor (Musk/Parry Sound Consultant) Clinical Director Consultant Tracie Lindblad Reg. CASLPO, M.Sc., M.Ed. (BCBA) Tammy Frazer M.A. (BCBA) Dr. Rebecca Ward (PhD) 3

4 Hands Senior Therapists Mel McKenna (BCaBA Candidate) - Muskoka/East Parry Sound (ext. 3335) Brenda Lane - Muskoka/West Parry Sound (ext. 3327) Rose Greenwood (BCaBA) - Nipissing (ext. 1388) Rachel Barber (BCBA Candidate) - Nipissing (ext. 1305) Deanna Robinson (BCaBA candidate) - Nipissing (ext. 1306) Online ABA Staff Training Autism Services has just begun using a new online ABA training program for staff, offered by a company called Autism Training Solutions. This innovative program allows staff to take up to 70 hours of courses on-line, using live video of children and parents and employs evidence-based, current techniques. It provides pre/post tests for staff and allows supervisors to monitor online. This approach is a great opportunity to assist all Autism staff who require initial and ongoing training and who are located from Timmins to Bracebridge. We may also try it for parents as this company provide some free spots for them. School Support Program ASD The School Support ASD staff continue to work closely with special education staff in schools to support the implementation of effective educational practices for students with autism across the Region. The workshops, resource development, consultations and trainings offered are continuously being upgraded to reflect current research and are being tailored more specifically to specific children s needs, school teachers and classrooms. In addition, the School Support Consultants are now providing student specific consultation services to teachers. They also continue to offer Community and parent training. SSP-ASD is pleased to welcome Kelly Baker, interim ASD Consultant who is covering for Alexandra Johnson while she is away on maternity leave. We are in the process of piloting a Child Specific Consultation Model with schools and are hoping to fully implement the model by September

5 Connections for Students Connections For Students is a Ministry initiative for children leaving AIP services. It is intended to provide a smooth transition for the child into school services and to strengthen the team that are responsible for developing the transition plan. The School Support Program assists in the transition of the child, family and team for the twelve months after the discharge decision from AIP is made. The AIP and SSP-ASD teams continue to work together in order to offer student transitions from AIP to school. The two teams meet regularly to discuss the Connections process and their experiences. This service is a very important one for children and we are happy to report that we continue to successfully transition students from AIP to schools in both the Nipissing and Muskoka Regions. Community Supports This past Fall Parent Training Sessions were offered in the Nipissing, Muskoka and Timmins Districts. Despite technical difficulties and low attendance for some of the workshops offered, we continue to receive requests for parent training from parents and community partners. Our Parent Training Committee is busy planning for our Spring Autism Parent Training sessions. We are also evaluating our parent survey and are planning to survey parents on their training needs prior to our Fall training sessions. The Spring Parent Training brochure will be mailed to parents and posted on both the Hands and Autism Ontario websites. The brochure will be ready for distribution early April. We continue to take into account requests from parents for the following: Training shorter in duration, during the day and early evening Training offered at different sites via video conferencing to ensure we cover a wider audience and that families have the opportunity to attend all workshops of interest All training topics to be offered in both English and French 5

6 Community Training Did you know that we welcome requests for Autism Training from the Community? We provide training to partnering agencies, daycares, a variety of businesses, and even North Bay Police Services, just to name a few. Hands offers Autism parent training every Spring and Fall Autism Ontario and Hands will be collaborating to offer Superflex training to parents and community partners in Timmins, North Bay and Parry Sound this Spring (dates to be announced) Autism Ontario is also proud to announce that Dr. Greg Hanley will be presenting in North Bay and Sudbury in June The full day presentation is titled: Understanding and Addressing Sleep Problems and Compliance of Children with Autism More information about both trainings will be available on the Autism Ontario Website once dates are confirmed. PEERS Program If you are interested in Autism training of any kind, please contact: Parent s Corner The following is written by a parent about the PEERS program... José Vince at extension Our First Peers (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) group wrapped up on February 1 st. It was a great success and we are happy to announce that we are offering another session beginning March 20, We are offering the program in the Nipissing Region once again while we are in the process of planning to offer the training in the Muskoka/Temiskaming/Timmins Districts in the future. The program must be provided by trained coaches and requires many bodies and resources in order to be implemented with success. Please see the attached flyer for more information. Taking PEERS has made my son more comfortable socially. He is better at engaging people in conversation, is better at reading social cues and has even started planning get-togethers with friends without having to be nagged. School Support Program-ASD Consultants Nipissing / Tri Town Alexandra Labelle Kelly Baker (interim) Peggy Sakaluk Lynn Landry José Vince, Manager (ext. 1286) Donna Cunningham Muskoka / Parry Sound Teal Shirk-Luckett Valerie Reid Timiskaming / Cochrane Vicky Nolet Jennifer Kearns 6