Another successful day here at Axia, with three clinicians carrying out sterling work.

 

As mentioned yesterday, this will be the last of our ‘Daily Updates’ as next week we will start to do a ‘Weekly Update’ every Friday.

 

We thought it would be useful to remind everyone of the days that Calvin and Ren do regular streams at 7:30pm. The days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

• Tuesday 16th June 2020 – This will be the start of ‘The Last of Us’
• Wednesday 17th June 2020 – ‘Jackbox’ (as usual)
• Friday 19th June 2020 – ‘Final Fantasy IX’

Tonight at 7:30pm, Calvin and Ren will be discussing their thoughts on the Playstation 5 and playing ‘Final Fantasy IX’.

 

In other news, our Company Secretary / Education Lead / Admin Manager, Sue Power, will begin her phased return to the office after 12 weeks of shielding. I hope she will like the new room!

 

Also, most importantly, our Trainee Mental Health Nurse / Assistant to the ‘Self-Proclaimed’ Nerd Consultant, Renwick Bromiley, will celebrate his birthday tomorrow.

 

Happy Birthday Ren! We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Another successful day here at Axia, with four clinicians carrying out fantastic work.

 

We would just like to remind everyone that our offices now close at 4:45pm on Fridays. This is to allow our hard working Admin Team the chance to start their weekend a little bit earlier! Just a small thank you for their continued commitment to our service.

 

We would also like to make you all aware that tomorrow, Friday 12th June 2020, will be the last of our ‘Daily Updates’. We are so thankful for all the positive comments we have received over the past couple of months and are delighted that people have found them to be helpful. However, as well as usual posts and reviews, we will post a ‘Weekly Update’ every Friday. This will give an overview of the week and anything important that has happened.

 

I know some people may be disappointed to hear this but we feel that it is time to begin some transition into the changes in the ‘Lock down’ situation, as more businesses re-open and adults living alone being allowed to form a ‘Social Bubble’.

 

Lastly, if you are interested in supporting, or finding out more about the work carried out by our wonderful partners, ‘The National Autistic Society’ you can do so here: https://www.autism.org.uk/

Another successful, if quiet, day today here at Axia, with two clinicians carrying out excellent work.

 

For those of you who watched Calvin and Ren’s live stream last night, you will already know that they finally completed ‘Spyro 3’. They were both certainly relieved!

 

Next Tuesday, they will begin streaming ‘The Last of Us’, at the usual time of 7:30pm.

 

As usual on a Wednesday evening, they will be streaming ‘Jackbox’ at 7:30pm. Please feel welcome to watch or get involved.

Another busy day here at Axia, with five clinicians carrying out assessments.

 

Some of you may remember reading our ‘Service Adaptations’ article which was included in our update of 2nd June 2020. This was an article produced by Dr Hannah Williamson to outline the changes we had made to allow us to continue operating during the COVID-19 crisis. We are pleased to announce that this has been published by ‘The Parliamentary Review’ and can be viewed here.

 

Thanks again to Hannah for all of her hard work on this.

 

As you may also notice from the photograph on the article, alongside me is my niece Amy-Louise who left us after becoming a mother and also to pursue a career in Paediatric Nursing. She was recently offered the opportunity to complete a combined course which also includes Child Mental Health Nursing; she has made the decision to take advantage of this and we wish her the best of luck in her studies.

 

We would also like acknowledge the continued hard work both Renwick Bromiley, currently completing his Mental Health Nursing degree, and Sarah Chierico, who is on placement with us whilst completing her Occupational Therapy training. They are both a pleasure to work with and bring so much to Axia.

 

Today, we were also delighted to welcome Suzanne Roberts from ADDvanced Solutions, who are a well established Community Network group covering the Liverpool and Sefton area. They have been commissioned to offer post diagnostic support to families who have been referred to us from Alder Hey. Suzanne will be joining us every Tuesday to meet with families following their assessment and begin their programme of ongoing support.

 

You can find out more about ‘ADDvanced Solutions’ here: http://www.addvancedsolutions.co.uk

 

Calvin and Ren will be streaming later, as usual, at 7:30pm. They both are both hopeful that this will be the last ‘Spyro 3’. We wish them the best of luck!

Another successful day today here at Axia, with three diagnosticians carrying out excellent work.

 

One happy individual went away with a signed copy of Calvin’s book ‘The Nerd Consultant’s Guide to Anime’.

 

If you would like to buy a copy, the Kindle edition is available from Amazon. If you would like a hard copy of the book, there are still limited copies available at the discounted price of £25 (RRP £49.99). You can reserve a copy by emailing our Admin Team at: enquiries@axia-asd.co.uk or by calling the office on 01244 567656.

 

This week is ‘Carers Week’ which aims to raise awareness of the many individuals who are unpaid carers, often not realising what they do and the impact they have on families and communities.

 

You can find out more about ‘Carers Week’ and how you can get involved here https://www.carersweek.org

Another successful day here at Axia today, with four diagnosticians carrying out excellent work.

 

If you have an upcoming assessment with us to be conducted via Skype and are unsure about how to proceed, please refer to the following post ‘Skype Appointments – How to Guide’.

 

This has recently been updated by Ren to include advice about what to do if you are experiencing problems on the day of your appointment.

 

It may also be of interest to those of you who don’t have an assessment booked with us but would like to use Skype and are unsure of how to set up an account.

 

Calvin has produced another game review to help you decide what you should be spending your hard earned money on. This review is of ‘Shantae and the Seven Sirens’.

 

Calvin and Rev will be live streaming later, as usual, at 7:30pm. The game will be ‘Final Fantasy IX’.

Another successful day here at Axia, with three diagnosticians carrying out sterling work.

 

Valuing equality and diversity is one of the most fundamental beliefs of Axia: accepting and respecting all individuals and their differences. As you can see from the home page on our website, ‘Axia’ derives from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘value, merit, worth’.

 

Calvin made the very good point this morning that in light of demonstrations and protests taking place in support of ‘Black Lives Matter’ we here at Axia had not yet shown our support. And we do wholeheartedly support this. We would like to take this opportunity to share that.

Ways to show support:

Another successful day here today, with three diagnosticians carrying out fantastic work.

 

Great news! Dream has done a brilliant job of editing the recording of the presentation that I was due to deliver at today’s Post Diagnostic Support Group and it is now available to view here, along with the slides.

 

Thanks, Dream for working your wonders!

 

Calvin and Ren will also be streaming ’Jackbox’ tonight, as usual, at 7:30pm.

Another great day here today at Axia with 5 clinicians carrying out excellent work.

 

As you will be aware, if you have been reading our daily updates, we are proud to have continued operating during this difficult time. It has meant some changes to the way we usually operate but we felt it necessary to adapt and continue to provide assessments for those families and individuals who wanted to access them. Dr Hannah Williamson has written an article on behalf of the service to discuss how we were able to stay open and what the impact of this has been.

This article will be followed by a survey to gain people’s views and experiences of accessing our service during this time.

 

As usual, Calvin and Ren will be live streaming tonight at 7:30pm. The game will be ‘Spyro 3’.

Another successful day here today, with three diagnosticians carrying out sterling work.

 

Although you are not able to partake of this, over the weekend Calvin made the most amazing gluten free, vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake, which was gratefully received in the office.

 

As mentioned last week, unfortunately we have had to cancel the Post Diagnostic Support Group that was due to take place on Wednesday 3rd June 2020. We are confident that we will be able to post the recording and slides from my scheduled presentation at the time when we should have met in Crewe. We have taken the decision to postpone the current programme for this year until next year. We will arrange for the confirmed speakers to hopefully come and carry out their presentations in person in 2012.

 

In place of this year’s meetings, we will continue to post presentations: Sarah will produce a recording for July then Linda, Calvin and Ren will produce one for September.

 

Don’t forget to vote for any topics that you would like to see covered. We have already had a fantastic suggestion for looking at Autism and ADHD: one and the same? Distinctly different? And how they impact on each other. Further ideas will be most welcome.

 

Finally, Calvin has also been working hard on ‘Ranking the Highest grossing Films 2010 – 2019’.

Today’s update has been posted earlier today to allow for essential website maintenance.

 

Another successful day here today with four diagnosticians carrying out sterling work.

 

Calvin has produced a review of ‘Minecraft Dungeons’ to help you decide if you would like to spend your hard earned money on it, or not!

 

We also wanted to share an email from the National Autistic Society which can be found below.

 

Calvin and Ren will be live streaming as usual later at 7:30pm. The game will be ‘Final Fantasy !X’.

Tell supermarkets to support their autistic customers during lockdown

Long queues, confusing rules and limited delivery slots mean that too many autistic people and their families are struggling to get food.

We’re writing to supermarket bosses to ask them to make a few simple changes, like opening up priority hours, keeping consistent rules and helping their staff understand the needs of their autistic customers.

Join us, alongside charities like Mind, Scope, Mencap and Autistica, by signing and sharing our letter.

Last month, we asked for your experiences of lockdown. Hundreds of you wrote in – thank you to everyone who shared their stories. One of the big issues you told us about was getting food.

Although supermarkets and their staff are working hard to keep us safe, lots of autistic people and families told us that the new changes were leaving them stressed and anxious. They can’t get online delivery slots because they’re not in the group considered most vulnerable to coronavirus, but they also can’t go to the supermarkets because of the barriers they face in-store. Some shops don’t allow you to bring family members or unpaid carers, or shop during priority hours when it’s quieter. Getting food shouldn’t be this difficult.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Supermarket bosses can make simple changes to support autistic people.

Supermarkets have a legal duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people. Simply put, they need to accommodate their autistic customers. Will you help us remind them of their duty?

Together, we can make sure that supermarket bosses know that getting it right for disabled customers should be their top priority.

Thanks for your support,

Beth
Campaigns Manager

P.S. If you’re struggling to get food now, we’ve put together some information that may help.

Another busy day here today, with four diagnosticians carrying out excellent work.

 

Dream, today, has been working on downloading the recording that we made for the Post Diagnostic Support Group (PDSG). We are hopeful that we will be able to post that on Wednesday 3rd June, the previously designated time that we would have met in Crewe.

 

We have had an interesting suggestion for the topic of the next PDSG, which is looking at Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as both separate but similar conditions. Any other suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

Calvin has produced a game review of ‘Trials of Mana Remake’.

 

Please note that tomorrow’s update will be posted earlier than usual due to essential website maintenance.

Another productive day here today with two diagnosticians carrying out excellent work.

 

Sadly, the next Post Diagnostic Support Group, which was due to take place on Wednesday 3rd June, cannot go ahead at the Lifestyle Centre in Crewe as planned due to current restrictions and advice. This is disappointing but also expected. However, Calvin, Ren and myself have been recording my advertised presentation on ‘Catatonia’ this afternoon and if successful, it will be uploaded to the website, along with the slides.

 

Calvin and Ren have also prepared a list of ‘Games to Get you Through Lockdown’.

 

If the recording of the presentation is perceived as successful we will be happy to do this every six weeks and if you have any ideas about what topics you would like covered, please let us know.

 

Calvin and Ren will be live streaming ‘Jackbox’ at 7:30pm and you can also see Calvin’s review of ‘Final Fantasy Remake’ which was posted earlier today.

Another successful day, with five diagnosticians working hard, as always. We are also delighted to have a trainee Occupational Therapist, Sarah Chierico, on placement with us.

 

Bev, our Domestic Assistant, alerted me to these new trainers which have sensory details. This may be of interest to some of you. Click the image below to read the article.

Calvin has also continued to work on reviews of games that are available, advising whether, in his opinion, you should be spending your hard earned money on them.

 

Finally, Calvin and Ren will be streaming Spyro 3 at 7:30 PM.

Another great day here at Axia today, with four clinicians carrying out assessments.

 

We are delighted to have been invited to the National Autistic Taskforce Forum in London on 5 November 2020. This will be an excellent opportunity to discuss future plans for ‘autistic care’, which you can read more about by clicking here or the image below.

 

Calvin and Ren will be live streaming as usual at 7:30pm tonight. The game they will be playing will be ‘Final Fantasy IX’. You can also read Calvin’s latest review of ‘Top 10 Bad Films with Good Concepts’ which was posted earlier today.

Four diagnosticians working today with people from as far away as Canada, Wales, Salford and Liverpool.

 

In relation to which games you would like Calvin to review to decide what you want to spend your money on, there are a few other games. Please vote on what you would like reviewed.

 

• The Wonderful 101 Remastered
• Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
• and Pokemon Sword And Shield: The Isle Of Armor

Another successful day here today with four clinicians carrying out wonderful work.

 

We thought this research article would be of interest to you. (Click here or the image below to read the research).

Anecdotally, and from evidence base, we have known for some considerable time that autistic individuals are probably disproportionately represented as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and there are very few, other than single case studies where people have been offered recognised interventions. There has also been discussion about what constitutes as trauma in order to arrive as a diagnosis of PTSD and you will see in this article that Francesca Happé’s team have distinguished between what would definitely be within DSM-5 and what probably wouldn’t be within DSM; we welcome this.

 

From Axia’s point of view, some years ago we looked at 500 Developmental History Questionnaires that had been completed by autistic adults and sadly found 100% self reported bullying, which clearly can leave lasting trauma.

 

We welcome this article, albeit on a small sample, but a promising start from an eminent research group.

 

Calvin and Ren will be live streaming as usual this evening at 7:30pm. The game will be ‘Spyro 3’.

Another week begins and today we had three diagnosticians in.

 

The National Autistic Society have published a very helpful update which may be of interest so we have reposted below.

 

Calvin is continuing with his game reviews, posting “Doom Eternal” this morning,  and would like to ask all of you which of the following he should review later down the line.

 

• Final Fantasy 7 Remake
• Trails of Mana Remake
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Ninjala
• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
• Last of Us part 2
• Paper Mario Origami king
• Ghost of Tsushima