Everyone is unique in their strengths and challenges. Sometimes those challenges are behavioral. Other times individuals need help in increasing their level of independence in self care or living skills. Sometimes individuals have challenges finding ways to be part of the community and with interactions in social settings. Individuals may want to learn new vocational skills. All client planning is individualized based on needs and goals.
Occasionally there is an immediate need that must be addressed quickly and positively. I have successfully examined a problem or situation, created a plan for intervention, and trained support staff on successfully implementing the changes.
It takes a team! As well as working with the client, I work with the entire team to help train support groups on best practice for support and growth.
Social skills and community involvement are part of a full life. I help my clients increase their social awareness and responses to increase their ability to take part in social groups and community events. I also provide clients at social events that they want to attend but struggle to be successful at due to peer interaction or personal anxiety and stress.
As new parent of a young autistic child we found generous community support from preschool through high school transition, but we were oblivious to the unknowns of his adult life. Enter Chris Savides. To be fully transparent, Chris served as our son's high school transition teacher for several years, so she knew him quite well. While as parents we did not know what to expect with his (unique) independent living, Chris calmed the proverbial seas. Chris was instrumental in helping us transition our son into a home of his own. She worked directly with us for the summer during his housing transition. She helped with the housing shopping all the way to the actual move in day for our son. Across a 12-week time frame we had Chris learn his whole routine here at our house, then we had our son just having dinners at his new home to staying one night a week to many nights a week until the final transition. The final day began with a wonderful birthday party (21 years old) and a drive to his new home where he has now been living for over 2 years. Chris helped to support our whole family with this transition. As parents we wanted our son to be successful and happy with his new life and even the thought of this transition was scary but needed to be completed for so many wonderful reasons. Thanks to Chris it was smooth sailing. - DAN & BETH MCLAIN
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