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Description
Developmental disorders have become a real problem at national level due to the number of new diagnosed cases that is constantly increasing. The recovery of children with developmental disorders depends on several factors, starting with the early detection and continuing with the involvement of the parent in an integrated and individualized therapeutic process. In some cases, it can be a weak motivation caused by not accepting the diagnosis, the poor financial situation and the poor information, social stigmatization, lack of relevant information, lack of adequate psychological and social counseling. In our records, there are 100 children from Maramures (94), Satu-Mare (3), Salaj (1), but also from Ukraine (2). Children are between 2 and 18 years old and have various diagnoses (mainly Autistic Spectrum Disorder, but also ADHD, various delays, Down Syndrome, etc.). The purpose of the project is to increase the capacity of 100 families from the 3 counties of Romania and Ukraine who have children with developmental disorders. The parents/ guardians of these children are often feel overwhelmed by the situation: they do not know how to claim their rights and how to help their children. That''s why we think it''s appropriate a course on Advocacy followed by help and facilitation in all the other months of the project. We will also provide individual and group counseling for parents in order to help their children as much as possible. We will involve the Maramures community in raising awareness related to development disorders. For this, we will have monthly activities together. More than 500 people from the Maramures community will be involved. Regarding the organizational development, we envisaged a strategic planning and periodic external supervision workshop for the 20 employees within the Day Care Recovery Center.
Summary of project results
The project "Special Children and Families - Empowerment for families caring children with developmental disorders (CoFaSp)” implemented from February 2021 to January 2022 aimed to increase the capacity of families who take care of children with disorders of development by increasing the quality of their life through advocacy activities, innovative social services and community involvement.
Several categories of beneficiaries were addressed: 104 parents for whom a course on Advocacy was organised, plus 90 hours of monitoring of advocacy activities, as well as individual and/or group counseling sessions; 103 children and young people aged 4-20 for which an innovative social service was offered (9127.5 hours of behavioral therapy based on the principles of ABA, speech therapy, physical therapy, an inclusive programme, melotherapy, 12 horse riding sessions and 24 pottery sessions). Also, information activities were carried out in 20 Maramureș school units and an event was organised around the International Autism Awareness Day. The latter 2 activities involved 877 people from the community. 15 employees were part of an external supervision and a strategic planning workshop.
During the 12 months of implementation, results were visible for each child/young person, but also a greater openness of the parents regarding the acceptance of the diagnosis, stress management and unconditional acceptance of their own person were noticed. All of this can be found in the internal data collection forms specific to the intervention sessions. Likewise, a greater openness of the local community related to the issue of children with developmental disorders was noticed. As an example of ensuring the project''s visibility, the banner and the roll-up were displayed at the Advocacy-themed course, the Donors were mentioned throughout the activities and all the hand-outs respected the visibility requirements.