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8339 KEEPING OUR BOAT AFLOAT: SURVIVING THE STORM AND THE BIRTH OF A VISION

Thursday, July 9, 2015: 1:15 PM-2:30 PM

Room Number: 205 (Colorado Convention Center)

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A family’s journey of supporting their teen with autism during crisis, stabilization and reunification through struggles assessing their son’s needs and accessing outside help. Hear how family confidence was regained with their son by creating plans for safety, reunification and permanency that led to a vision of hope for others. We are sharing our family’s story in hopes to help others find their way to move their family forward during times of crisis. During these challenging times parents need direction and guidance. Our family was no different. We had so many questions. Why is our son in crisis and displaying severe challenging behaviors? Why can’t we seem to come out of the crisis ourselves like we had so many other times? How was living in this manner affecting our daughter, our marriage and our son? During this emotional and stressful time, we needed to gather what we knew and assess our son’s needs. The decision was made we could no longer meet our son’s level of care in our home. This was very emotional to say out loud. We loved our son and had always helped him and found a way to support his needs. All family members were showing signs of stress and trauma from the three months of crisis and our son needed stabilization treatment. As we share our story, we are hoping others learn how we assessed our son’s needs, found appropriate access to care and treatment, established de-escalation and self-regulation strategies that were appropriate for our son, and built our confidence back up that we could support his needs back in our home after his four month stabilization program. We ideas to help families case manage during these times as well as creating family plans including for permanency, safety and reunification. Families and individuals with ASD in crisis are not alone and listening to other families stories of healing and moving forward can be very empowering. We hope to share our story and give hope and sense of direction to healing. And hence, the development of The Elijah Glen Center which will open in February 2015 to serve adolescents with ASD in crisis.

Learning Objectives:

Assess the need for outside help during crisis while nurturing the family relationship by keeping it healthy and strong.
Identify the appropriate level of care in crisis from in-home supports through stabilization placements.
Create family plans including permanency, safety and reunification.

Content Area: Family and Sibling Support

Presenter:

Marla Root
Parent of an adult with autism, Executive Vice President
The Elijah Glen Center at Step By Step, Inc.

Marla was awarded the 2010 advocate of the year by Ohio’s Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities. She is the Public Policy Chair for the Autism Society of Ohio. Living through crisis with her son, Eli, was the inspiration for her development of The Elijah Glen Center.

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