Lisa Jo Rudy on How Families of Children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome Can Get the Most out of Community Activities

“Autism can be an incredibly isolating disorder. Not only do parents wind up spending a huge amount of their time, energy, money and love on therapies and care – they also feel like outsiders in their own communities and families. It can be even worse for siblings who, through no fault of their own, are often excluded from ordinary activities. By getting out and getting involved in the community as it’s possible, families are able to reconnect with clubs, churches and synagogues, sports leagues… and often with their own families. Another huge plus for getting out into the world with a child on the autism spectrum is that families discover their child’s real strengths and abilities in ways that would never be possible in the school or therapeutic settings.”

June 1, 2010Autism

Inmate to Artist: Jeanette Purkis’ Misadventures with Asperger Syndrome

“When I was young, I had no self-esteem and figured the difficulties my Asperger’s caused made it impossible for me to achieve anything. I gave up on myself and the world. Now that I am older, I realise that Asperger’s is probably the main reason that I have been able to achieve so much…”

June 1, 2010Autism

Dr. Darold Treffert on Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant

“…new cases of the acquired savant — neurotypical persons in whom savant skills emerged, sometimes at a prodigious level, following brain injury or disease when no such skills were evident pre-incident — have convinced me that we have vastly underestimated brain plasticity and the brain’s ability to repair itself when damaged through rewiring, recruitment and release. This new neurologic optimism — the brain’s ability to renew and repair itself — has vast implications not only for better understanding and intervening in autism and related conditions, but provides much more hope and enthusiasm for intervention post-stroke, for example, or for treatment of a variety of other CNS conditions formerly viewed much more pessimistically.”

May 27, 2010May 8, 2017Counselling

Jill Manthorpe on Depression in Older People

“Everyone who works with older people in social services or social care will encounter people with depression. The impact of depression among older people and those supporting them can be profound. This may be particularly so because depression is under-recognised and there are pessimistic views of the potential for response.”

May 27, 2010Counselling

Hilary Abrahams looks at long-term outcomes of survivors of domestic violence

Hilary Abrahams is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Violence Against Women Research Group at the University of Bristol. She has worked extensively on the support…

May 5, 2010Social work

Michael Mandelstam’s hopes and fears for the future of social care

“[My hope is] That the new policy of personalisation and self-directed support should not be not implemented crudely and with cost cutting in mind, and that it is not used as a cover for abandoning people, particularly older people, and leaving them to sink or swim…”

May 5, 2010Counselling

Danuta Lipinska on person-centred counselling for people with dementia

“They considered it helpful in their quest to ‘make sense of Self’ within the context of their lives as affected by living with dementia. Making sense of Self and the world around us is an endeavour we all undertake in our own unique ways, Sometimes people will seek out the impartial, empathic listening of a professional counsellor to support them in this quest.”

April 27, 2010Autism

Phoebe Caldwell on her new DVD, Autism and Intensive Interaction

“Although the approach know as Intensive Interaction has been available since the 1980’s, it has relied on direct person-to-person teaching and until recently there has been remarkably little training material generally available. It really is important to see it done.”

April 27, 2010Autism

Jude Welton on Asperger Syndrome, metaphors and literal thinking

“Since children with Asperger Syndrome are literal thinkers, some parents and professionals try to avoid metaphorical language, so as not to confuse or distress – but this can’t prepare the child for the real world. And non-literal language can be fun! If metaphors are explained and explored in a relaxed, playful way, they can enrich children’s understanding of language and the world, and help them to use language in a less formal and more ‘natural’ sounding way.”

March 30, 2010Education

Liz Hoggarth: Outcome evaluation – help is on the way

“Many of us react instinctively against further demands to produce evidence, especially quantitative information – we know all too well that progress with clients is made up of tiny, often faltering, steps forward that are extremely difficult to demonstrate or quantify. There are downsides to the outcomes approach as there are to other systems of planning and evaluation. But the question of outcomes is a perfectly legitimate one. The number of visits made to a family is beside the point if the risks are not picked up and appropriate interventions are not identified to begin to help people deal with the problems. The number of counselling sessions provided is hardly important if in the end they made no difference for the person seeking help. We must address outcomes in order to improve services.”