Back in June, we highlighted a documentary called Love, Hope & Autism. If you had a chance to watch the documentary from our blog, it really does help to shed light on living with ASD. As an offshoot from this documentary, we stumbled on these tips that are really helpful in learning how to connect with individuals who have ASD.

Here are 10 tips can help you connect with individuals who have ASD:

• Try to connect. Social isolation is a big risk for people with ASD. Avoidance makes that worse. Take your time to reach out to individuals with ASD to help open up the lines of communication.
• Keep an open mind. Just because a person struggles to connect does not mean they do not want to. Some people with autism are very social and desire friendships just like everyone else.
• Set aside fears. Remember that ASD does not automatically make a person aggressive. Meltdowns can happen, but they’re often about being overwhelmed. If your ASD acquaintance is visibly agitated, merely give them space and time to calm themselves.
• Forget social norms and conventions. Repetitive behaviours, such as hand flapping or noises, are coping mechanisms — nothing to be concerned about. Remember that eye contact may be difficult for an ASD person. Many ASD people use their body — not words — to communicate. Try not to stare when they do unusual things.
• Look for creative ways to connect. Ask a caregiver for best practice advice for individuals. Speak at a reasonable pace and volume, and use short sentences. Some children connect with touch, music or animals. Think non-verbal, perhaps pictures or flash-cards. Don’t expect an immediate response; it may take time.
• Be aware of sensitivities. Some people with autism are hypersensitive to sounds, smells or certain physical sensations. Some are exactly the opposite. Ask a caregiver for advice about making the environment comfortable for the person with ASD.
• Let people practice. Reach out and help ASD people practice social interaction. Every child and young adult needs to practice social interaction.
• Foster awareness. Remember your reaction to a person with ASD becomes part of how they see themselves and how others see them.
• Advocate for more respect and behavioural training supports. Sound the alarm about the lack of services for people, especially once they hit age 18. Take an active stand against bullying and abuse.
• Be inclusive. Keep in mind that ASD is complex. Focus on more than just a “cure.” Think acceptance and inclusion. Says Iarocci: “It’s not the kind of thing you can fix. You need to be understanding. People with ASD just do things differently.”

To read more, check out the original article by clicking here.

The City of Coquitlam is offering Everyone Welcome Inclusive Programming for drop-in sports. Individuals and their support workers, family or friends can come play a variety of different sports such as basketball, floor hockey, lacrosse, soccer and more.

The program runs Tuesdays (from April 9th – June 25th) from 11am – 12:30pm. The cost if $2/person and is free for attendants. For more information, click here.

Come join in for some sports and fun!

A very enlightening story about the power of inclusion in the workplace. The article mentions how sometimes it just takes a moment to realize certain things. For Sam Benamron, that moment came in 2016, as he was giving out gift cards: One of the physiotherapy clinics he owns had been the main sponsor for a production of the I Can Dream Theatre, a charitable performing arts company for adults with special needs. “Part of the deal was that we would buy $100 gift cards to pay them for putting on the play,” he recalled.

As he handed them to each of the players, “I saw their reaction, and it was priceless. That $100 gift card was as if they had just won the lottery. A light went on. I said, ‘I need to do this on a more personal level.’

That year, he hired two of the young people to work at his Verdun clinic. The following year, after he acquired a clinic in Montreal North, he hired a third. Paul Fernandes, Ainslie Macdonald and Lindsay Oksenberg do such tasks as launder towels and pillowcases and fold them, wash equipment and clean the beds — tasks Benamron was able to eliminate from the physiotherapists’ responsibilities to free them to spend more time with patients. They’re called physio helpers: It’s a regular job, with statutory holidays and vacation pay.

The three have flourished. Filmmaker Merrill Matthews, who is also involved with I Can Dream Theatre, has made a touching and beautiful 24-minute documentary about them and their experience, to be screened March 28 at the Wagar Adult Education Centre in Côte-St-Luc as part of an evening symposium about inclusive hiring.

This really demonstrates the power of promoting inclusive in the our workplaces. To read more about this story, check out the article.

…if their child has just been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

With it being World Autism Awareness Month, it\’s important to raise acceptance and understanding for autism. At CVS, we don\’t just do this in April but we do this everyday. Everyday we help individuals who are on the autism spectrum as well as their families. We found this article by the CBC an interesting one for parents who are new to the world of autism.

Here are 8 things parents should know if their child has just been diagnosed with ASD:

1. Take time to process – When your child receives a diagnosis, you\’ll experience a wide range of emotions. That\’s normal and perfectly OK. While you might have been expecting this diagnosis for a long time, you still need to give yourself some time to process what that diagnosis means. Especially if it is a diagnosis or label that you weren\’t expecting or aren\’t familiar with.
2. Do your research – Knowledge is power! You need to learn everything you can about your child\’s diagnosis and what therapy options are available, if therapy is indeed something you want to explore. You need to read the pros and cons about the different therapies so you can make the best informed decision for your child.
3. The diagnosis does not have to be a negative thing – Unfortunately, some diagnostic labels come with a lot of negative baggage. Who knows why, but here\’s the thing: a label is what you make it out to be. It does not have to be negative at all. As the article states, a diagnosis can open up the door to funding, support and a variety of other things your child and family may need.
4. You\’re likely to come across a lot of bad advice – If someone tells you about the latest and greatest therapy or whatever, then do the research yourself. Use that research to determine what is and what is not worth pursuing. Trust me, there is a lot of bad advice and misinformation out there.
5. Find a support group – Raising a child, regardless of whether or not they have a diagnosis, is not always easy. There will be hard days and it\’s important to have someone you can talk to on those days, someone who can listen to you or offer support based on their experiences. Your support group doesn\’t have to consist of someone else raising a child with the same diagnosis. Nor does it have to be a local, in-person type of support group. An online support group or friend can be extremely valuable to you as well. However, someone who has experience dealing with similar diagnoses may be helpful to you on those particularly challenging days.
6. Connect with others who have the same diagnosis – It is important to have friends who do have the same diagnosis as my child. Or at the bare minimum, at least read writings from people with the same diagnosis. They can provide an incredible amount of information and insight that no other professional, parent or expert can.
7. Be prepared to advocate – When your child gets diagnosed, things don\’t automatically get easier. You are likely going to have to advocate hard for your child everywhere you go. That\’s why it is important to connect with others who have the same diagnosis and research everything. The more educated you are about the diagnosis, the better it will be for advocating for your child\’s needs.
8. Accept your child for who they are – The diagnosis does not change them. The therapy options you use should not seek to change them either. Simply embrace your child for who they are, because they are pretty amazing.

We hope this helps you as you and your child navigate these early stages of their life. Children are our future and best of all, none of us are the same. The uniqueness of us all is what really makes this world an interesting place to live.

According to a 2018 report by the Canada FASD Research Network, an estimated 1.5 million Canadians have FASD. That\’s about 4% of the country\’s population. For children in welfare or foster care, the prevalence could be as high as 11%.

In an interview on CBC radio, Miles – an individual with FASD – says that many people don\’t understand the daily struggles for people living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or FASD. \”In school, it was: I was lazy. I wasn\’t trying. I didn\’t care. And then I would get detention — when in actuality what was happening was, I maybe was struggling with the sensory issues: it was too bright. It was too loud. There was too much going on,\” he told White Coat, Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman. Himmelreich was born with FASD. It\’s a diagnosis caused by the brain damage that occurs with prenatal exposure to alcohol.

Symptoms can include learning disabilities, speech delays and trouble regulating emotions. It can be difficult to diagnose, as the symptoms are similar to other developmental disabilities.

As a teenager, Himmelreich says he had the developmental capacity closer to that of a seven-year-old. But the school system and social structures around him, he says, expected him to behave the same as his peers without FASD.

This created a loneliness for Miles and many others with FASD experience something similar. To learn more about Miles\’ story and FASD, check out this article on CBC and take the time to listen to the interview on CBC radio.

It is that time of year again where we are reaching out to the people we serve, their families, our staff and stakeholders to gather information for our Outcomes Report. Every year we reach out to see how these stakeholders feel about our service from the lenses of efficiency, access, and satisfaction. In addition, we ask what we are doing well and how we might improve. All of this data gets analyzed and folded into a report that we call the Outcomes Management Report.

Recently, we have sent out a link to an online survey for the Outcomes Report and we ask that you please take the time to fill out the survey so we can get a better picture of how we are doing. The higher the response rate we have, the better our understanding of the service we will have. We\’re hoping to wrap up the survey by Tuesday, April 16th so please try your best to complete the survey by this date.

If you have any questions about our Outcomes Report please feel free to contact Pete Stone, Manager of Human Resources & Quality Assurance at [email protected].

Did you know that April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day & that April is World Autism Month. For more than a decade, April 2^nd has marked a special day to raise awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The United Nations in 2007 proclaimed April 2^nd as World Autism Awareness Day but it also became a day to start a global conversation about autism. The goal is to raise awareness and understand more about autism across the world. April is also considered World Autism Month.

In light of this, we\’d like to present 4 things that everyone should know about autism:

1.  Autism is not a mental illness, a mental health condition or a learning disability

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impaired verbal and social communication; rigid, restrictive and repetitive behaviours; uneven intellectual development; sensitivity to sensory input; challenges with fine and gross motor skills; and gastrointestinal difficulties, among other characteristics.

Autism is more accurately referred to as ‘autism spectrum disorder’ (ASD) because each person on the spectrum can exhibit a differing array of these characteristics and with wide ranging severity.  There’s a favourite saying in the autism community: “If you’ve seen one person with autism, you’ve seen one person with autism.”

2.  The rate of autism in Canada is not yet fully known, but we have recent estimates

Canadian media reports often cite autism rates from the United States.  Research from the U.S. Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 1 in 68 children in America has ASD.  Since autism is five times more prevalent in boys than girls, they estimate 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls has ASD in the U.S. The best estimate in Canada is that ASD effects 1 in 94 children, according to The National Epidemiologic Database for the Study of Autism in Canada (NEDSAC).

3.  Families can often wait several years to access autism services covered by the public healthcare system.  Government support for such services are widely uneven across the country.

It is not uncommon for families to wait several years to receive a diagnosis of autism for their child from publicly funded health services in most provinces.  And once a child is diagnosed, interventions with a strong evidence base, such as behavioural therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, have wait times of several months up to several years in most places across the country.  Once services are received, families have access to these therapies for only limited time periods and often beyond the window of time that most experts believe optimal. We are lucky in the west coast as support for autism is more readily available and/or more flexible in BC and Alberta.

4.  Is it best to say a ‘person with autism’ or ‘autistic’?

In terms of referring to individuals with diverse abilities, we always want to encourage people to speak in a way where the disability does not define the individual. So, in this case, that would mean say a \”person with autism\”. Similarly, many families prefer the descriptor, ‘someone with autism’ since the individual is greater than their diagnosis. Better still, refer to individuals by name.

Community Ventures Society supports individuals who are on the Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. We understand the ups and downs of autism and feel like we are constantly learning about individuals on the spectrum. CVS is in its 40th year of operation and to this day we feel like are still learning and evolving. It has been a wonderful journey and we\’ve been able to meet and support so many individuals and families.

Keep an eye out through the month of April for more information on autism and don\’t forget to share what you hear from us at CVS with individuals throughout your own network!

Community Social Services Awareness Month is over and March was a great month to recognize all the wonderful social services across our province.

The Times Colonist recently released a great article that really highlights that the average individual likely has never heard of Community Social Services Awareness month and many don\’t truly understand what community social services are. Those who have little awareness over these services may have never needed to access these services before. However, according to the numbers, someone in your life, at some stage, will rely on community social services to get by. Whether that be services you require for yourself, a relative or close friend.

Many of the services that the BC government provides to the people of the province are provided through contracts with community organizations. These include services and supports for families, for children and infants, for young people involved in the child-protection system, for people with disabilities, for those trying to find jobs, for foster parents, for newcomers to BC, and for older adults.

Our work helps ensure that other public services, such as health care and education, can focus on doing what they do best. Just talk to a police officer or your child’s teacher or your doctor or nurse and ask them what their jobs would be like without social workers, counsellors and child-care workers. Try to imagine what your community would look like if those services disappeared. Who in your life would be left to struggle alone?

Now that we have reached April, let\’s not forget about the important of all of our community social services organizations. They really form part of who we are as an integrated community. To read more of this article, click here.

We wanted to share this beautiful article that really speaks to many of us. Being a parent can be overwhelming endeavour at the best of time, but when you are a parent to a child with a disability of any kind, you might feel those battles more keenly than others and face fears most parents can\’t even begin to fathom. For parents with diverse abilities and needs unique to them — parenting can be a time filled with confusing lows and incredibly rewarding highs.

White Rock resident Leslie Stoneham wasn\’t expecting to give birth to a child with Down syndrome 31 years ago. When she had Kierra, she was provided with outdated information and was still presented with the option of giving her newborn up for adoption — in 1988.

But she knew instantly that she was going to raise Kierra just as she had been raising her older daughter, and that meant plenty of  love — sometimes tough love — compassion, and joy.  It also meant focusing on Kierra as a whole person and not just someone with special needs.

One message that is very interesting is that young kids are often most open to children with disabilities, but somewhere along the line to adulthood, we forget that natural acceptance and focus too much on what people are lacking. As parents, we need to work hard to instill and keep this kindness and openness in our children.This will only continue to make a more inclusive community for everyone, which ultimately benefits those with disabilities and those without.

To read more about the stories shared in this article, click here to read the full article on CBC News.

The Services to Adults with Developmental Disabilities (STADD) program within the Ministry of Social Development & Poverty Reduction has made a few updates recently we thought that we would share with our community.

First, following the recent completion of expansion into the Fraser, Northern & Interior Regions, STADD and Navigator services are now officially available to the majority (53%) of the eligible DD, FASD & ASD youth population in B.C.  STADD is now in over 140 communities and five Regions.

Second, STADD recently underwent a major update to its website. This includes updated information on how to get in touch with STADD, additional information on Navigator services, and for the first time, a full listing out of all the locations where STADD is available. This update took over a year to develop, including consultations with all partners and several youth/families. Click here for more information on STADD.