[FEAT BC Admin]

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[Deleted User]

Hi Everyone:

A friend of mine is making Italian Charms to support Autims. She has many different choices for us…My three favorites are of Course

Medicare for Autism NOW!
Autism Oh The Possiblities
Autism Action We can do more.

However she has many to chose from if you would like to see or pick your own you can e-mail me privately wendy-durnan@shaw.ca OR you can e-mail my friend Connie at italiancharm@ymail.com

You won't believe the talent she has…If you have
ideas of your own for Charms she will make it how you want it. Connie makes these herself.

They are beautiful.

Thanks so much,
Sincerely,
Wendy Durnan

[Super Dad]

*** REMINDER: This Tuesday Night ***

North Shore ASBC Lecture Series

The North Shore ASBC Support Group proudly presents:

Long Term Goal Planning: What Is It and Why Bother?
by
Sara White, PhD, BCBA
at
7:00pm, March 17
in the
Delbrook Recreation Centre

We are very excited to have Dr. Sara White as our guest speaker. Sara, a BCBA with a PhD in Clinical Psychology specializing in ABA, is one of the most brilliant behaviour consultants in the world.

Long term goal planning is an extremely beneficial clinical tool for behavioral and educational program planning for individuals with autism. In addition to allowing parents and educators to understand the relationship between current programs and more complex long-term goals, it also can assist practitioners in prioritizing targets for intervention. While similar to an individualized educational plan, long-term goal plans should ideally consider goals that are achievable over the next five to ten years. Ideally, these goal plans would be revisited with the individual’s instructional team at least once per year.

This presentation will be geared towards practitioners and parents and will be a discussion of a clinical tool rather than a description of original research. While there will be a brief discussion of theoretical research related to the topic, the presentation will largely focus on the clinical application of this technique.

Learning objectives for the presentation will be as follows:
– To describe the purpose and benefits of long term goal planning;
– To describe the relationship between long term and short term goals;
– To describe one format for presenting long term goals to instructional teams;
– To analyze one example long term goal and develop example short term goals based on that long term goal.

Please note that Sara has presented the same topic at the BC Association for Behavior Analysis conference on March 7.

DATE: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
TIME: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
LOCATION: Delbrook Recreation Centre (600 West Queens Road, North Vancouver)

For those going north/west on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn right at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd. For those going east on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn left at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd.

Coffee/Tea and snacks provided.
Donations are greatly appreciated.

Please RSVP to Carol at colemanmoser@hotmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Carol and Tony
(Co-facilitators for ASBC North Shore Group)

[Dione Costanzo]

The ABA Support Network
Proudly announces its inaugural meeting, featuring the following discussion:

“Incorporating ABA into Sport and Leisure Activities….
What Do Parents Want?”

Special Guest – Tara Cleave, Community Services Coordinator
Surrey Parks and Recreation

Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Surrey Sport and Leisure Complex
16555 Fraser Highway
Use Arena entrance and go up stairs to MP Room #2
RSVP: dionec@shaw.ca

The ABA Support Network is a newly formed non-profit society that is based in Surrey, BC. Our mission is to improve access to quality Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment and support in the home and in the community to children and adults who need it.

Join us for an evening of discussion and brainstorming ideas with Tara Cleave, Community Services Coordinator with Surrey Parks and Recreation. Tara is looking for feedback from parents, caregivers and individuals who are looking for access to ABA support services in a community setting.

Inclusion and participation in local recreation services such as swimming lessons and day camps is beneficial to all children. This meeting will be run as a focus group with the goal of giving Parks and Recreation an understanding of the needs and wants of individuals who wish to access these community services and require ABA support in order to participate.

Bring your ideas and comments for what promises to be an exciting and informative evening. Non-Surrey residents welcome too!

Sponsored by – The ABA Support Network
Giving the ABA Community a Voice

We are a non-profit society. Donations at the door greatly appreciated!

[Super Dad]

North Shore ASBC Lecture Series

The North Shore ASBC Support Group proudly presents:

Long Term Goal Planning: What Is It and Why Bother?
by
Sara White, PhD, BCBA
at
7:00pm, March 17
in the
Delbrook Recreation Centre

We are very excited to have Dr. Sara White as our guest speaker. Sara, a BCBA with a PhD in Clinical Psychology specializing in ABA, is one of the most brilliant behaviour consultants in the world.

Long term goal planning is an extremely beneficial clinical tool for behavioral and educational program planning for individuals with autism. In addition to allowing parents and educators to understand the relationship between current programs and more complex long-term goals, it also can assist practitioners in prioritizing targets for intervention. While similar to an individualized educational plan, long-term goal plans should ideally consider goals that are achievable over the next five to ten years. Ideally, these goal plans would be revisited with the individual’s instructional team at least once per year.

This presentation will be geared towards practitioners and parents and will be a discussion of a clinical tool rather than a description of original research. While there will be a brief discussion of theoretical research related to the topic, the presentation will largely focus on the clinical application of this technique.

Learning objectives for the presentation will be as follows:
– To describe the purpose and benefits of long term goal planning;
– To describe the relationship between long term and short term goals;
– To describe one format for presenting long term goals to instructional teams;
– To analyze one example long term goal and develop example short term goals based on that long term goal.

Please note that Sara has presented the same topic at the BC Association for Behavior Analysis conference on March 7.

DATE: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
TIME: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
LOCATION: Delbrook Recreation Centre (600 West Queens Road, North Vancouver)

For those going north/west on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn right at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd. For those going east on Highway #1: take exit 17 for Westview Dr, turn left at Westview Dr, and then turn right at Queens Rd.

Coffee/Tea and snacks provided.
Donations are greatly appreciated.

Please RSVP to Carol at colemanmoser@hotmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Carol and Tony
(Co-facilitators for ASBC North Shore Group)

[Debra Antifaev]

Hey there Jacqueline,

Don't be bullied by your teacher on this one. They do have a tendency to try to make us feel a wee bit inferior and unknowledgable when it comes to our kids (no offence to the many great teachers out there).
Your instincts are correct. There is no evidence to support the use of weighted jackets and weighted blankets can, in fact, be very harmful.
There is some suggestion that weighted jackets can actually do the opposite of what was intended by reinforcing an incompatable behaviour.
When a teacher suggested this for my son I thought my consultant was going to have a stroke!
Talk to your consultant.
Read prior posts on this chat for links to studies, etc.

Well done sniffing out a dud…there will be many more!!

Deb

[Jacqueline and Dennis Bell]

If any one has any information, research or comments on the use of weighted blankets or vests could you please pass it on?

My son's teacher is recommend it's use to decrease his fidgeting and help him focus. I am extremely uncomfortable with it.

thank-you

Jacqueline

jmrbell@gmail.com

[Super Dad]

Hello everyone on the North Shore,

Carol has asked me to post this:

http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/live/story.html?id=6dad3832-d0aa-4c49-922a-c75a3bcdf6e3

Beyond The Definitions: Understanding Autism and Asperger Syndrome through film and conversation

The presentation includes the screening of "The Boy Inside."

Time: Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Sutherland secondary.
Cost: Free.

To register, contact the North Vancouver Recreation Commission at 604-987-7529, or visit http://www.northvanrec.com

[Dione Costanzo]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let everyone know that we had a very positive experience with the Whistler Adaptive Ski Program.

Last weekend we had our 6 year old participate in 2 days of lessons. We lucked out and got 2 "naturally ABA" instructors for him who had that magic balance of instructional control in a fun, motivating environment.

We were not sure if he was even going to wear the boots and helmet and he had them on for 2 days and actually did some independent skiing on a gentle "bunny hill" by the end of his second day.

We were impressed with the efforts of the staff and director of the program to gather as much information as possible before meeting our son so they were aware of his needs and current strategies used with him. They are currently updating their website and forms they use with potential participants and were eager for our input as well.

If anyone wants more information about the Program or our experience please email me at dionec@shaw.ca

CHeers,
Dione

[Ursula Lee]

Hello fellow FEATers,

Recently I asked your opinion on the practice of consultants requesting that the programs be returned upon termination of your relationship with that service provider as I was faced with that problem. Thank you everyone for your response and feedback, which I greatly appreciated. The opinion was unanimous that programs should belong to the child/family. On the question of the regularity of this occurring it appeared to be rare (1 of about 30 that responded). I learned a few things from this experience and there have been some helpful suggestions and points made from the feedback I received, that I would like to share with you here for general information.

Disclaimer: I offer this as my own thoughts for general information only. It is not directed at any particular individual or group. It should not be viewed as a legal, authoritative or binding opinion.

1. Program ownership
Everyone who responded felt that the programs belong to the child/family. Here are at least 3 other good reasons why you must keep ALL your programs.
First, you could be audited by the Ministry, and the audit can occur many years after your expenditure. You must be able to justify how you spent their money. If you are claiming ABA as a medical expense on your tax return, you could be audited by CRA. You must be able to prove this expense. Having the data sheets alone might not be acceptable evidence.
Second, this is your child’s complete and permanent medical record. Consultants and therapists may come and go. The one constant is your treatment record. In developing current programs, your consultant may need to know what was previously tried, what worked, what didn’t work, what was the sd issued, what were the success/mastery criteria, how was data collected, etc etc. All of this information is crucial and contained in the program write up.
Third, if you are ever involved in legal proceedings, for example bringing a law suit against a school board (as in the Hewko case) you will need to bring ALL your treatment records into evidence.
For at least these reasons you must retain ALL of your programs.

Your service provider may be concerned that programs are used without their supervision. This is not your concern as long as you abide by the law in retaining your records and do not knowingly disseminate the programs for personal profit. If your next consultant is qualified and reputable, they will likely not be using the previous consultant’s programs anyway. If your next consultant is unqualified, then using someone else’s programs is the least of your concerns. If your contract indicates some things must be returned, clarify exactly what this means. You must find a way to reconcile this so that the completeness of your child’s medical record is not compromised. This is, after all, not only crucial, but also very personal and sensitive information.

2. Theft/Stealing
If items such as programs are removed from your home without your permission, you can bring charges of theft against the person who removed the programs and likely also whoever else is involved in this undertaking all the way to the top. For example if your service provider instructed someone else (like a lead therapist or intern) on the team to take something without your permission, and your service provider was in turn acting on the approval of his or her supervisor, then all could be named. If convicted, this would go into their Criminal Record.

3. Unprofessional behavior
If you are treated badly or your service provider behaves unethically (for example breach of confidentiality, malicious acts against your team members (such as malicious gossip, harassment of your therapists directly or indirectly), non-delivery of promised services, etc), you have recourse to complain to the Ministry via ACT (Autism Community Training), which maintains a Registry of approved service providers (RASP). If they receive multiple complaints against a specific service provider, a pattern will emerge. Depending on the severity of the complaint(s), the service provider could be removed from the RASP list. My understanding is that not being on the RASP list does not mean they cannot practice, it simply means they are not approved by ACT and the Ministry for payment under the Autism Funding program.
Here is a link to the ACT site and Complaint form.
http://www.actbc.ca/
http://www.actbc.ca/RASP/Complaints/Complaint_Form_RASP.pdf

You may also send a complaint or copy of the complaint to the Autism Society of BC as they are frequently asked about service providers.

Examine your contract. Clarify with your consultant. If you are considering hiring a new service provider, clarify this and other important issues first (for example, ownership of programs, qualifications of the service provider, role of supervisors, termination procedures, etc).
A regulatory body is badly needed to govern the conduct and quality of service providers. I’m sure this will eventually happen. But until that day, we will have to rely on our wits and each other. We can talk to each other, and this includes discussing experiences about consultants, both good and bad. We are allowed to do this. It is not a mistake to talk freely as long as you do not do this maliciously or untruthfully. Luckily, most qualified service providers are decent people.

You may contact me at:
ursulalee@telus.net

[Pam Browne]

I would just like to respond to the recent posts regarding Consultants. When we left our last Consultant we also were required to submit the programs that belonged to the company we were with. I do agree that it would be a good idea to make parents aware of this and to ask a consultant when thinking of hiring. There is probably a big list of things we could ask that would be helpful.

One other thing I would like to bring up about the post is that I feel offering up this consultants name may have been an error as it implys that this is not a good consultant. This is proven by the fact that the next person to post went on to say it was "an act of revenge" and that this person was taking advantage. If a person has a consultant for 4 years one must assume that overall they were happy with the services that have been provided. Changing consultants is a choice and people change for many reasons, as I have myself. A wise woman once said to me "you aren't married to your consultant".

Clearly there is a difficult situation being presented here but I think this issue needs to be addressed on its own so that people don't make assumtions.

Thanks,
Pam

[Author]

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