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Third Seminar - Cardiff

The Cardiff Autism Services Seminar takes place on 4^th and 5^th February. While the Newcastle seminar focused on public services for older individuals, the focus for the Cardiff seminar is on younger adults and children. Both seminars address key questions in relation to the inclusion of individuals in accessing services and the role of advocacy. They also highlight the importance of involving the views of autistic people and their families in decisions that affect their lives and the need for integration and partnership working in research and services. Day 1 particularly focuses on services for adults and Day 2 on children’s services with a special focus on services in Wales.

Questions we will address.

• What can we learn by listening to the experiences of autistic individuals and family members in relation to services?
• Why are there disparities in access to services and how can we reduce them?
• What changes are needed in public services and why?
• How can researchers engage more effectively with service professionals, autistic individuals and their family members?
• How can we ensure evidence based methods of assessment, support and social care take place across different agencies?

*please note seminar attendance is by invitation only. The seminar will not be recorded but you can follow it on twitter. There is also the discussion space on the Autism Research Policy Practice Hub http://www.autismrpphub.org/

Cardiff programme schedule

Day one

10:15 Tea and coffee

10:45: Introductory talks and seminar

12:35: Lunch

13:35: Afternoon seminar

15:10: Tea and coffee

15:40: Seminar

17:30: Finish

Day two

8:45: Tea and coffee

9:15: Seminar begins

10:45: Tea and coffee

11:15: Seminar

12:45: Lunch

13:30: Afternoon seminar

15:00: Tea and coffee

You can view the full programme here.

You can view an accessibility summary here.

The Venue: Glamorgan Building

The seminar will take place at The Glamorgan Building at Cardiff University’s Cathays Campus. The venue has been inspected by autistic individuals for the presence of unpleasant sensory stimuli or other obstacles to autistic accessibility.

Committee Room 1 will be well signposted and you will be greeted by members of the Wales Autism Research Centre team as you arrive – you can see additional pictures here. 

Post event drinks

On the Monday evening everyone is welcome to come along and join us for post event drinks at the Park Plaza Hotel Laguna Bar pub in the Park Plaza Hotel, about 5-10 minute walk from the venue. You can find out more about the Park Plaza Hotel here.

Food

Our catering company is Green Shoots a Social Firm established to offer training and employment opportunities to young people who face disadvantage and barriers to employment. [email protected]

On arrival on Monday there will be pastries, tea and coffee. Tea and coffee will also be served during the breaks. Lunch will consist of a cold buffet on both days. If you would prefer to purchase food, The Glamorgan Coffee Bar is on the ground floor selling a range of sandwiches and snacks. However, please note that this venue is used by both staff and students so it can be busy.

Good news about outcomes from the series so far

After the recent Autism Services seminar in Newcastle we received this message from seminar delegate Jacqui Rodgers:

At the recent seminar in Newcastle we discussed the need to ensure that training programmes for clinical psychologists include teaching sessions relating to adults with ASD. On the Newcastle training programme ASD has been covered within child and family teaching but during the seminar we identified that there is a pressing need to situate ASD-related teaching within a lifecourse framework. As a consequence of these discussions I have approached the course team for the clinical psychology training programme at Newcastle University with a proposal to introduce a new teaching session, which focusses specifically on adults with ASD and their use of mental health and diagnostic services. We would hope to include an adult with ASD as one of the presenters, if possible. The programme team agreed that this was an entirely appropriate development and we will be planning to introduce this session next academic year.

The seminar organisers are immensely pleased to hear about such an immediate and concrete result from someone attending the seminar. If you have any news to share of this nature please do get in touch.

Newcastle programme schedule

Day one

10:15 Tea and coffee

10:45: Introductory talks and seminars

12:20: Lunch

13:10: Afternoon seminars

14:30: Tea and coffee

17:15: Finish

Day two

8:30: Tea and coffee

9:15: Seminars begin

11:00: Tea and coffee

11:30: Seminars continue

12:40: Lunch

13:30: Afternoon seminar

15:30: Tea and coffee

You can view the full programme here

Post event drinks

On the Monday evening everyone is welcome to come along and join us for post event drinks at the Bacchus pub in central Newcastle.

Venue

The seminar will take place at The Research Beehive building (otherwise known as the old library building) at Newcastle University. The venue has been inspected by three autistic individuals for the presence of unpleasant sensory stimuli or other obstacles to autistic accessibility. It should be noted that there is some fluorescent lighting, though we will do our best to minimise exposure by relying on daylight - the exception is after 15:00 on Monday. A previous event attended by autistic adults went well, and the venue was considered acceptable.

Food

On arrival on Monday there will be pastries, tea and coffee. Tea and coffee will also be served during the breaks. Lunch will consist of a cold buffet on both days, though if you would prefer to purchase food, The Courtyard Restaurant is nearby. However, please note that this venue is used by both staff and students so it can be busy.

Glossary of terms used in autism practice research

This glossary of specific language often used in autism research and practice was put together for the Edinburgh seminar. We will add to it during subsequent seminars in the series. We hope to produce a helpful document for stakeholders outside the research community, which can aid in breaking down some of the language barriers between academics and the community.

Join the conversation via twitter!

If you can’t be at the Edinburgh seminar on Autism Practice, you can still have your say by joining a twitter-based discussion group.  In parallel with the small group discussions sessions planned within the seminar, we will be holding identical discussions through this Twubs site. You can login to the chat via your own twitter account. 

Discussions will take place as follows:

Thursday 13.45 BST: what do different stakeholder groups expect of “evidence-based autism practice”?

Friday 11.30 BST: what positive steps can we take to integrate researcher and stakeholder perspectives? 

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