Description
In Romania, public services aiming to integrate children with ASD in the community and to support parents within the process are greatly needed. The project aims to strengthen access to specific services for more than 300 persons in difficulty: increase access to services for 200 parents of ASD children, increase chances for social integration for 100 children with ASD, increase capacity for 10 ASD centers through training of 20 professionals and provide support for 20 families through a camp. Partnership with 10 local institutions will be made so that the counselling and intervention services for ASD children and families are provided in the local public services premises. A mix of activities will be developed from training followed by service provision for parents and children affected by ASD, project promotion and dissemination of informative toolkits for families.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to answer the emerging needs of support for families having children with autism in the context of the increased rate of autism diagnosis and the need of specialists working in ASD centres for increased and extended specialisation. The activities involved 31 professionals coming from the teams of the ten ASD Centres, which attended training courses on counselling the parent, access to education, expanding psycho-therapy to new environments within the community, involving parents as co-therapists. During the project implementation, 205 parents/relatives/legal representatives of children and teenagers with ASD and 143 children/teenagers with ASD benefited from the counselling/therapy service in 9 counties: Arad, Bacău, Botoșani, Călărași, Galați, Mehedinți, Prahova, Vaslui, Vrancea and 1 district of Bucharest. 20 families benefited of activities conducted by specialists and volunteers, during a summer camp. There were organised 3 support groups in Botosani, Vaslui and Arad where parents of children with ASD had the opportunity to discuss and debate with other parents about the difficulties and challenges in living and working with an ASD child. The most important needs identified by parents of children with ASD were reflected in a research report. 420 guides and 100 copies of the study were printed and distributed to the beneficiaries of the project at the local level. The guides (Guide for parents, Guide for brothers and sisters, Guide for grandparents and Guide of first 100 days) provide information on ways to relate to children with ASD and ways to provide support to the family.
Summary of bilateral results