Series of workshops launched for parents of children diagnosed with Autism via the Primary Care Diagnostic Pathway

Community Healthcare Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo

Series of workshops launched for parents of children diagnosed with Autism via the Primary Care Diagnostic Pathway

HSE Sligo, South Donegal, Leitrim, West Cavan Primary Care services have launched a series of workshops, delivered in Sligo town, for parents of children diagnosed with Autism via the Primary Care Autism Diagnostic pathway for the area.

This new initiative includes five in depth sessions delivered by skilled HSE staff including Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists.

The workshops aim to increase family understanding of the needs of their child following a diagnosis. It also aims to build or add to family strategies to support their autistic child to manage the demands of day to day life better. 

Invites to the workshops, which began on the 22 of May, have been issued to the relevant parents and is running over five weeks in Sligo.

Topics covered during workshops include:

• Exploring Autism and Neurodiversity – this session sets out the Neurodiversity framework which is the basis for Primary Care level intervention.
• Nurturing the parent child relationship – this session looks at how to maximise the positive benefit of interactions at home.
• Helping your child to understand and manage emotions – this session looks at how the family can understand and support the experience of emotions within the family system.
• Understanding and supporting your child’s Communication: This session will explore Communication and how speech and language development may differ for the Autistic child. The session will outline how to support a child’s understanding of language and how to develop improved expressive language skills  for conversation. The session will help parents understand when direct speech and language therapy is required.
• Occupational Therapy and Functional Skills development. - Occupational therapy session will explore how to support functional skill development for your child. This session will focus on self-care, productivity and leisure (Occupation) using practical approaches and strategies to support participation in daily living activities. 

Dr Mark Hogan, Principal Psychology Manager with HSE Sligo, South Donegal, Leitrim, West Cavan Primary Care services said “It is hoped that these workshops will become a core component of services offered to parents as Primary Care services strive to further develop local Autism supports. These workshops are designed for parents whose children have received an autism diagnosis, and for whom an education and support package developed by Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, and Occupational Therapy has been recommended. The goal of the workshops is to guide, educate, support and empower parents. We hope to share helpful strategies with parents, and to help them to explore what Autism means for their family.”