TRFS launch a New Strategy for Autism

Thursday 3 April 2014

Autism Awareness 002

“On our own, we simply don’t know how to get things done the same way you do. But, like everyone else we want to do the best we can.  When we sense you’ve given up on us, it makes us miserable. So please keep helping us, through to the end.”   – Naoki Higashida, the Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

On 2nd April 2014, we celebrated World Autism Awareness Day with a selection of Supported Individuals, Carers, Staff and representatives from the Scottish Government to launch our new Autism Strategy.

We witnessed a range of passionate speakers who spoke powerfully about autism. We live-tweeted the event and the following are a selection of people’s favourite quotes: -

Autism Awareness 011Elaine Smith MSP: When you meet one person with autism then you have met one person with autism. Everyone is an individual

David Breslin: People are generally like PC’s but people with autism are like Apple Mac's. The software is not always compatible because it just works in different ways

Deborah MacLean: I wanted to help people like me. Despite improvements, once you turn 18 there is nothing

Linsey Gallacher: There is a heavy burden on carers to make sure they're making the right choices for or on behalf of those they care for.

Peter McCulloch: Outcomes have to be meaningful on the individual's terms

We have compiled the tweets from our event into a single place using Storify. If you are interested in seeing all of them, please click here: https://storify.com/RichmondScot/richmond-fellowship-scotland-world-autism-awarenes

Autism Awareness 007The Richmond Fellowship Scotalnd currently provides support to 217 individuals across 25 Scottish local authorities

With the launch of our new strategy, our goal is to provide individuals with autism with the best quality service available and to become a leader in the field of autism service provision. We aim to be recognised as a best-value provider of specialist, high quality, person centred services which support people to live in their local community.

This strategy is about delivering on our commitments in conjunction with People with Autism & their Carers, External Partners & Commissioners as well as our Staff.

These commitments are: -

  • ·         Supporting people with autism to remain living in their local communities or to return to live in their local communities
  • ·         Providing the best possible services to people with autism
  • ·         Treating people with autism with respect and dignity at all times
  • ·         Recognising and valuing the uniqueness of each person with autism
  • ·         Engaging with people with autism in decision-making about their service

You can find out more about our strategy by using this link:

The Richmond Fellowship Scotland Autism Strategy 2014-17

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