02/04/2025
Our Children and Young People’s Autism Service is delighted to launch a new café style local parent support group in Omagh as part of World Autism Acceptance Week from 31 March 2025 to 06 April 2025.
Sarah McElholm, SLT/Early Intervention Lead, C&YP’s Autism Service at the Western Trust explained:
“The Early Intervention Service (EIS) is very fortunate to meet families at the beginning of their Autism journey. We continuously ask families what matters to them, what supports/ interventions would they like to receive and what has been most helpful to them thus far. There was an overwhelming response highlighting the positive benefits of ‘learning from the lived experience of others’, and the need for more ‘support groups’ at this particular stage in the autism journey. Over the past number of years, EIS has worked hard to get groups of parents together in a relaxed and informal way while providing practical intervention.
‘Keeping it Visual’ was one such intervention, this practical workshop was designed so that parents/carers could come together in small groups and over a coffee and a chat make individualised meaningful resources to take home. This friendly environment paved the way to what we have today – parent support coffee morning.
Having first met at the EIS Visuals workshop held in Omagh last year, a small group of parents continued to meet up on a regular basis over the past number of months. They posed the question and wondered whether EIS could help facilitate a regular relaxed group of this nature without delivering any targeted support – a space where parents could chat to each other.
EIS agreed that a local parent support group would be a great idea. We invited these parents/carers to a focus group for them to share their ideas /suggestions. Together we are passionate about growing this idea into something special.
The first of these parent support café mornings took place on Wednesday 2nd April from 10- 12 at Recovery College, Lisnamallard, Omagh.
“We are so proud of what these parents/carers have achieved and look forward to seeing this initiative grow across the Trust area. We look forward to engaging with parents over the coming months to help support and develop autism services in the future.”
Future parent support coffee mornings will take place on the first Thursday of every month from 10:00AM – 12:00PM in Lisnamallard (Recovery College), Omagh.
More information on services and support available is on the Children and Young People’s Autism Services Hub
