Client Service
Ontario Autism Program
The Ontario Autism Program (OAP) offers support to families of children and youth on the autism spectrum up until 18 years of age. The OAP is currently transitioning to a program that is comprehensive, needs-based and family-centred. The needs-based services and supports currently available are Foundational Family Services, Caregiver-Mediated Early Years, Core Clinical Services, Entry to School, and Urgent Response Services. LRCSS is proud to provide all these services to OAP children and youth.
Foundational Family Services (FFS)
At Lake Ridge Community Support Services, OAP families can access Foundational Family Services through our dedicated Foundational Services team. These services are provided for families registered with the OAP and are individualized to meet each child’s unique needs. These services include:
Family and peer mentoring via our Facebook Group
ON-DEMAND Family and Caregiver Workshops & Resources via our Foundational Family Service Portal
Brief Targeting Consultations with a Behaviour Consultant
Learn, Explore & Play (LEAP): Play-based Learning for OAP families with children under six and their caregivers
Navigating the Education System: Supporting your child with autism at school
Caregiver, Parent & Peer Mentoring Groups for peer support.
This past year we had 249 unique families access our foundational services. We provided 1,388 units of services to these families.
249
Unique Families Served
1,388
Units of service delivered
FFS Portal
At the end of fiscal 2020-21, we transitioned foundational workshops for parents and caregivers to an on-demand portal. Parents and caregivers are extremely busy and need access to tools and information on their terms. Our portal provides them on-demand access to streaming video and downloadable tools wherever and whenever they are needed.
Foundational Family Services Portal 2021-22 Statistics
Consultative Services
As OAP continues to transition; we are pleased to continue serving 18 clients in our individualized consultation services virtually and in person. These clients and caregivers continue to build skills through consultation with a Behaviour Consultant as they are waiting to transition into the new needs-based OAP core services.
Intensive Services (OAP-I)
Renee Ruddock, Clinical Director
The Ontario Autism Program - Intensive services have had a successful year with several clients beginning or continuing their transition into school with success. As our clients' hours increase at school, they are decreasing within our program. Despite the barriers COVID-19 created for our teams, they continue to be resourceful and creative. Our teams demonstrated this creativity by implementing telehealth sessions, virtual caregiver training sessions and virtual social skills training while transitioning some clients back into service who had been off for months due to COVID-19. The OAP-I staff continue to be dedicated and devoted to their clients. They continue to develop new curricula to optimize learning for clients who are getting older and require a different level of service through dyads and group learning.
Families continue to wait for their invite for their child’s assessment to determine their financial support and placement in the new needs-based OAP core services. Regardless of their evaluation, the OAP-I program will end by March 2023.
Entry to School Program
The beginning of 2022 had a busy start due to an expansion of LRCSS services. In partnership with the lead agency Grandview Kids, Resources for Exceptional Children and Youth and Durham Behaviour Management, we collaborated to design, develop, and implement the Entry to School Program (ETS). The ETS program falls into the category of early years support, one of the four core services offered by the Ontario Autism Program funded by the Ministry of Children Community and Social Services. Between January to March, the team procured eight locations across the Durham Region, furnished and prepared classrooms, and recruited 31 classroom staff to prepare for 164 clients to enter the program before the end of April 2022. The children eligible for the program are those who have a diagnosis of ASD, and who have never attended school before. The average enrollment age is three years old. LRCSS's role in the partnership was to staff the eight sites and manage the clinical and classroom teams, directly implementing the group program.
The expansion was a success, and as of April 2022, eight sites were offering morning and afternoon group programming to cohorts throughout Durham. One hundred and twenty families accepted the Ministry's invitation to join the program. The focus of the first six months of the program is on:
Communication
Play
Social interaction
Functional routines
Behavioural self-management
Pre-academics, learning and attention
The next six months will focus on the children’s transition into school. LRCSS is so proud of all of the staff within the partnership who were involved in the design, development and implementation. The addition of eight new teams has been a wonderful success due to our staff’s ability to research, assess, collaborate and motivate. This expansion highlighted to our community partners and families what dedicated and passionate staff we hire and employ at LRCSS.
Caregiver-mediated Early Years Program
The Ontario Autism Program, Durham (OAP-D) partnership provides caregiver-mediated programs through Lake Ridge Community Support Services, Grandview Kids, and Durham's Regional Municipality. The Province of Ontario invites families directly via written letters to participate in the caregiver-mediated programs, from which there are three programs to choose between. Lake Ridge Community Support Services is proud to be providing Project ImPACT as part of the OAP-D.
Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers) uses a Naturalistic Developmental-Behavioural Intervention (NDBI) which combines Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and the communication and developmental fields. Applied Behaviour Analysis is a proven technique for teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) social and communication skills. By utilizing ABA techniques naturally within the families’ day-to-day activities, children are better able to generalize newly acquired social-communication skills and continue to use them after the program is complete. This past year LRCSS provided service to 21 families in Project ImPACT.
