In So Many Words

I have been reading so many great posts by bloggers lately, and whenever I see something that really speaks to me in some way, I feel an urge to share it. Rather than flood Twitter or Facebook with links that may or may not be seen by anyone, I decided to list a few of them here.

So here are some things that caught my eye in the past week:

On Advocacy – a subject that is near and dear to my heart:
What Is Advocacy? An Inside Scoop From Pathfinders For Autism from The Gift: A Blog for Caregivers of Sensational Children

An Amazing Moment When a Kid is Just a Kid
The Power of You and I from Welcome to Normal, Population 0

Insights Regarding the Division Between Biomed Moms and Neurodiversity
Desperate, huh? and Bridging the Gulf from Life as the mother of 4

Practical Tips
Simple Accommodations to Help Your Autistic Employee Excel from Spectrum Siblings

Autism Treatment – How to Use Supplements to Treat Autism, Part 1 and Part 2 from Dr. Kurt Woeller’s Autism Recovery Treatment Blog

And on a separate, somewhat superficial note, did you know that you can now put a Facebook “Like” button on your web site? It allows you to see how your Facebook friends are interacting with sites around the web. I put one on Another Piece of the Puzzle just for kicks, so feel free to pop over and “like” me (and let me know if you add one to your site)!

Since I became part of the autism community a few years ago, one of the things I was consistently alarmed to hear the parents of older children with autism talk about was the lack of services available once their children entered adulthood.

Well, I am excited to say that the situation in Pennsylvania is changing, with the introduction of two pilot programs for adults living with an autism spectrum disorder.

Adult Autism Waiver

One program is the Adult Autism Waiver, which will allow Medicaid-eligible adults who are significantly impacted by ASD to receive services to meet their needs in a variety of areas. Waiver services are currently expected to serve up to 200 adults living anywhere in the state of Pennsylvania. To request an application, you must call the Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Autism Services at 1-866-539-7689. More information is also available at their website.

Adult Community Autism Program (ACAP)

The other program is the Adult Community Autism Program (ACAP), which is a fully integrated system of care that incorporates health care with vocational, social and behavioral support. The services provided will be individually tailored to build upon each person’s strengths, improve social skills, support both work and recreational activities, as well as to assist families and caregivers in their roles.

ACAP is currently available to individuals who live (or plan to live) in Dauphin, Cumberland, Chester, or Lancaster County. It is being administered by Keystone Autism Services, which is an agency within Keystone Human Services.

The basic requirements are simply that the individual:

• Be 21 years of age or older.
• Be eligible for Medical Assistance.
• Have a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
• Be able to live in a community setting with fewer than 16 hours of support per day.

As a pilot program, ACAP needs to show its usefulness to move forward and become a permanent reality in this region and throughout the entire state, so KAS has asked me to partner with them get the word out to as many people as possible. If you know of anyone who may qualify for this program, I urge you to share this information with them and encourage them to look into it further.

Keystone Autism Services can be contacted at 717-412-7400, and they are more than willing to talk to anyone who has an interest in the program and answer all your questions. I have listed some additional links, as well as the schedule for their upcoming information sessions, on a separate page.

I know many of your kids are young, like my son, but they will be adults soon enough, and we need to do everything we can to prepare our communities to support and include them.

For those of you who live locally, I wanted to let you know about a special night devoted to Autism Awareness by the Harrisburg Senators (for you non-Harrisburg area residents, that’s our local baseball team).

This event will take place on Saturday, July 25th at Metro Bank Park on City Island, with the gates opening at 5:30 pm and the game scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm. The team will be wearing specially designed puzzle piece baseball caps which will be auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting the Greater Harrisburg Area Chapter of the Autism Society of America.

Keystone Autism Services has joined with the ASA to support this event and will be there providing information on autism and on the various supports and services available to individuals. KAS has recently launched an amazing pilot program to provide support services to adults on the autism spectrum, called the Adult Community Autism Program. I’ll share more on this later, as it is an incredible step forward for the state of Pennsylvania and for the adults in our region who are living with autism.

In addition to promoting awareness for autism, there will also be a family picnic and wiffle ball game before the Senators play and the opportunity for the kids and siblings to run the bases after the game! Food can be brought into the park for children on special diets as well. More information and registration info is available at autismharrisburg.org.