: Letting Go: When Your Child Leaves Home

Most families realize that sooner or later someone else will need to provide for the daily--usually intense--needs of their son or daughter with autism. Even if they are, by choice, the main caregiver, they are faced with the awesome certainty of their own demise. Few people who are not parents of severely disabled children understand the pain of letting go when these sons or daughters leave home to be cared for by someone else. Even if the placement is one the family has carefully checked out and feel is a good choice, the deep grief of the separation is often not understood by the extended family. It is especially not often understood by most staff in the agency who will be serving the new client. A new documentary, "Letting Go,"* will be shown (3o minutes) and the two co-producers, Ruth Christ Sullivan and Michael Grady, will describe how four parents describe their feelings when, after years of waiting, they are offered a slot in a residential group home nearby. The footage is of events that really happened--parents speaking about what it was like to have made their decision. The discussion is aimed at helping parents, and professional direct-care staff, to understand deep grieving--the raw pain of the leaving--parents go through before and for a long time after the placement is made. We know of no other such document on this specific subject. ASA, in all its history, has had only one such presentation aimed at this subject (when a child leaves home). It was chaired then, also, by Ruth C. Sullivan. Introduction of Subject 15 minutes

View Documentary (DVD)  30 minutes

Discussion/Q&A    30 minutes