Autism Involvement Group (AIG) – July 2018
AIG meeting held on 31st July 2018
Summary
This AIG discussions included:
Devon County Council Autism and ADHD Social Care Team: discussion and question session
During this session many issues were jointly explained by Emma Pateman, Team Manager from DCC and Anthony Reilly from Devon NHS Partnership Trust’s DAANA diagnostic team. (DAANA is an acronym loosely made up from the initials Devon, Autism, and ADHD).
A set of written questions had also been produced by the Dimensions For Autism (DFA) group which Emma agreed to provide written answers to.
Emma explained the history of the DCC Autism and ADHD Social Care Team, and that ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Feedback from the Joint Engagement Forum (JEF)
The JEF is a quarterly forum run by DCC and the 2 Devon NHS CCGs at which people with lived experience of receiving health and social care and their organisational representatives or supporters, along with people with characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010. The Forum enables attendees to question managers, discuss services and policies, get an overview of the latest engagement activities and make links between them. Richard Blair Brown attend the JEF as Co-chair of the AIG, with Trish Darke for support. Richard updated the group on how the forum went from their perspective, what they raised there and what they learnt there. Richard and Trish reflected that the JEF provides a good opportunity for networking with others and they have used it to find out about other meetings to attend and to promote autism awareness amongst other groups.
Feedback from the Devon Autism Partnership Board
Matt Grimsey updated the group on the last Devon Autism Partnership Board which he attended on behalf on AIG
Dimensions For Autism Update
As a Trustee of the Dimension For Autism support and social group from which some AIG members are recruited, Sam Chew gave an update on DFA activities:
DFA is an Autism Support Group that supports people with Autism but without learning disabilities
DFA have been given referrals for non-diagnosed autistic people by CoLab, the Exeter City Council multi agency centre.
Some DFA members are becoming DFA Trainers who can deliver autism awareness sessions.