David Ankers' presentation from Open Forum Events' Living Well with Autism conference

1. Starting over: Re-designing Autism
services in South Staffordshire
MIDLANDS PSYCHOLOGY CIC

2. Clinical Excellence

3. Innovative Family Support

4. How do you make a difference?

5. A different way of looking at services…
 A service delivery model that is orientated towards
empowerment and is embedded in the
communities, families and social networks of
service-users.
 A focus on helping individuals to cope with their
condition long term, and on helping their families
to support them to do this.
 A model that is outcomes-led, delivered by an
experienced multi-disciplinary team in partnership
with parents.

6. What we provide
 Assessment and diagnosis of Autism
Spectrum Conditions
 Open-access to a range of support
services for children, young people and
families with ASC.
 Psychological interventions for young
people with ASC, their siblings and
families
 Training and Consultation to other
professionals who work in the field

7. What were things like?
 3 year waiting list
 Differing referral processes
 Different assessment processes
 Referrer apathy
 No follow-up or aftercare

8. Where do you start?
 With parents and young people
What they wanted:
 Open access support post dx
 No waiting list
 Help with a range of issues
 Based in their community
 To have a say

9. The Challenge
 Deliver what we promised
 Address waiting list from previous
service
 Reduce variation
 Avoid creating new waiting list
 Implement interventions and
support
 Cope with increased demands

10. What did we do?
 Keep it lean…
 Parent Advisory Group
 Simplified referral process
 Training and support for staff,
parents, volunteers
 Working with referrers, information,
training and liaison
 Opened up the doors! “Open Access”
Drop-ins, telephone support, email, workshops,
voluntary groups, individual meetings etc, etc

11. Where are we now?
 All referrals seen within 8 weeks
 Open access support
 Quality and value
 Outcomes-focused
 High levels of satisfaction

12. Open access support: Where can we
make the biggest impact?
CBT, Counselling,
Psycho-education,
groups, solution
focused therapy
Parenting Programs,
Behavioural
Intervention,
Consultation,
Education, Advocacy,
Information,
counselling
Awareness raising,
Peer mentoring,
Development of
groups and activities
Information, training,
care-planning,
consultation.

13. Mental Health / Other difficulties
 Depression/Low mood
 Separation Anxiety
 Fears and Phobias
 Obsessive-
compulsive/ ritualistic
behaviour
 Anger/Aggression
 Sleep
 Bullying
 Eating problems
 School exclusion
 Social Phobia
 Toileting
 Relationships
 Sexuality
 Gender Dysphoria
 Anti-social behaviour
 School refusal
 Social isolation

14. Further developments
 Parent-led changes
 Early identification and screening in schools
 Training SENCOs
 Observations over time
 Adult Services

15. Goals
 Reducing need for multiple referrals
 Reducing ‘referral through GP’
 Increasing early intervention
 Improving the life chances of children
with autism
 Developing adult services.

16. In summary…
 Tried and tested model
 Acknowledged service of clinical
excellence
 Consistently met performance targets
 Award winning service that is valued by
service-users.

17. In summary
 A Social Enterprise with community focus
 Parent led
 Award winning service