Local autism support group Triple A Alliance have just been awarded a €5,000 grant from the HSE Lottery Fund.
A delighted Alice O’Donnell got in touch with the Guide to break the good news.
We’ll be talking with Alice on Thursday, about how the funding will be spent.
In the meantime, some words from Triple A.
Triple A Alliance members have raised major concerns regarding mental health and sensory issues.
We are aware that these challenges underline the effective management of behaviour both at home and at school and have a significant impact on the long-term well-being of not only the individual with an Autistic Spectrum Condition but everyone who comes in contact with these individuals. Because the current services cannot supply the needed support and training, we would like to bring together a multi-disciplinary team to design and provide us with a workshop programme that covers these issues in a hands-on multi-disciplinary way.
The programme will involve training of our parents and adult members on the spectrum. We would like this to be a “train the trainer” model so we could have members offer this workshop to others similarly affected by these concerns. We aim to recruit a team that would include an occupational therapist who is well-versed on sensory diets and Sensory Integration, a psychologist or psychiatric nurse who works with this population, as well as one or more of the following: a speech and language therapist who specialises in autism , a behaviourist, a special needs teacher (or assistant who has worked with several children in primary mainstream setting) and a nutritionist specialising in how diet affects mood.
The project will be developed in a collaborative way and we are very excited to be able to offer this to our members. A big THANK YOU to everyone who plays lotto, especially those who never win!