Post-Diagnostic Support Group Minutes – November

Minutes of the eighth Post-Diagnostic Support Group
25th November 2015

Today’s group was attended by 14 people.

Items discussed were:

Our conference was discussed and Linda asked for feedback from the group and also informed attendees who weren’t present at the conference that the presentation slides and videos are available to view on our website. All positive feedback was received and it was discussed that an alternative venue would be sourced for any future conferences.

We discussed the Q & A session, our hopes of what would have been achieved and the reality. We discussed that for future conferences where we invite people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to take part we may pre-write some questions. Ronnie advised the group that he felt it would be helpful if people with ASD do a presentation/talk.

We discussed with the group the potential of having a conference in 2017 due to existing demands for 2016. A possibility would be to host one towards the end of 2016 but preference would be for Spring 2017. The group was asked to think about the content/message of any future conference.

Linda advised the group of two major conferences we will be attending next year: The National Autistic Society’s Professionals Conference and the Autism International European Congress in September 2016.

Linda then gave some books to Autism Inclusive: The Nine Degrees of Autism and a book written by one of our attendees, Martin.

We then moved onto the main topic of this group which was Coping with Christmas. Linda invited all attendees to write down the positives and negatives for BEFORE, DURING and AFTER Christmas. These were then discussed as a group.

Contributions from the group were then requested and Dream advised the group of his findings of the “real” meaning of the 12 days of Christmas.

Cal advised of a good recipe to be used for any visitors that may be unexpected, and also sought out the NAS link on Christmas which can be found here.

Carly advised the group that the first three groups of 2016 had been booked and would take place in the same venue (Crewe Library), however, the groups will then move to the new Lifestyle Centre being developed across the road from April onwards. Carly advised that all future dates and times would be posted on the website as soon as possible.

Date and times were given to the group of our next monthly support group which is due to take place on Wednesday 20 January 2016 between 1pm and 3 pm.