Across The Desk With Elizabeth Plouffe

It is my great honor to welcome Deputy Grand Chief Walter Naveau of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation to Across the Desk and the CASDA podcast series. Deputy Grand Chief joins us to discuss the growing concern about autism in the First Nations communities. We discuss how families need access to autism services which not only provide existing non-Indigenous learnings but to also incorporate traditional Nishnawbe healing ceremonies and medicines. We also focus on how geography and education create barriers to accessing services and what can be started to fix this problem. Halton as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many First Nations and the Métis. From the Anishinabe to the Attawandaron, the Haudenosaunee, and the Métis - these lands surrounding the Great Lakes are steeped in Indigenous history. ​ ​As we gather today on these treaty lands we have the responsibility to honour and respect the four directions, land, waters, plants, animals, ancestors that walked before us, and all the wonder

On April 6th the Canadian Journal of Autism Equity successfully launched its inaugural issue! Bringing together the voices of autistic Canadians from across the country, this journal is being created to amplify the voices of those who have always belonged in the conversation. Learn how you can add your voice to the conversation with the team from CASDA!

MentorAbility is a program which focuses on connecting protégées with mentors in careers. One of the best ways to learn about a career is to talk to someone who is passionate about what they do and will show you the realities of a career choice. Today we meet Tiffany Drummond who is an entrepreneur from Ottawa. Her business, ProCare Family Center, focuses on providing an engaging and safe daycare environment for the kids of Ottawa's busy working parents. Tiffany will share her experience being a mentor, what she gained from the experience and the feedback she received from her protégée.

This executive function thing - how many ways can having a deficit actually screw up your life? Quite a few apparently. Not the least of which is building and maintaining relationships with folks besides your family. Family are a built in "safe space" for relationships. They already know you and love you so not much effort is needed to make that work. Getting out in to the general public? With all the social rules and subtle cues of relating to others? That can be a bit more tricky. Join us to find out how you can make the relationship road a bit easier to travel.

Are you autistic and looking for work? Finding that a bit tricky during COVID? SpectrumWorks is offering a free virtual job fair which will be happening across Canada on April 8th. Visit SpectrumWorks.ca to find out more and register! Is this just for job seekers? No! We need employers for networking and service providers to introduce themselves and their programs. Today you'll meet Neil Forester who is one of the co-coordinators for the SpectrumWorks job fair. Jon Lai will also be joining us to update on how the conversation about autism across Canada is moving forward. This involves the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the consultation they are running for the National Autism Strategy. Want to get involved in the conversation? Visit CASDA.ca for more information!

Meet the editorial team for the new Canadian Journal of Autism Equity. Maddy Dever, Megan Krasnodembski, and Terri Robson are creating an opportunity to bring Autistic Canadian voices together. What will that look like? Listen to find out more and then watch for the official launch on April 6, 2021!

Executive function deficit can present as challenging for alot of folks on and off the spectrum. Ever had a really busy day and your to do list goes out the window? That's an executive function fail. When it happens all the time, it's a considered a deficit. Usually we have those moments in response to periods distraction or overwhelm. But what happens when someone is not only diagnosed with a full executive function deficit but also anxiety? Anxiety can play havoc with our mental state in regards to being able to function day to day and manage our emotional state. Now try to get organized during that vicious cycle of anxiety and trying to live your life and you'll get an idea of what we're discussing today.

When do you start thinking about where your autistic child is going to live? When they're 8 or 18? For some folks the conversation has to start as early as 8. Why? Because the supported housing wait list can be 10 years long. Join us as we discuss different housing options for autistic Canadians and how HAL-Labs is making a difference.

When you're in a situation that involves a disability, things can get a little tricky with accessing services and equitable access to those services. This needs to change. CASDA is working with members of the autism community, policy makers and government to level the playing field and lessen the challenges when it comes to making sure that autistic Canadians have as many options as possible for they life they want to lead.

Join Across the Desk for our new series in partnership with MentorAbility Ontario. A national initiative that promotes the employment of people who have a disability in communities throughout Canada. MentorAbility is spearheaded by local Coordinators who facilitate a full or half day mentoring experience in which job seekers who have a disability are matched with individual mentors (employers) – to explore career opportunities and learn what they need to get ahead in their desired field of interest.

We're welcoming Vanessa Tomas back to further discuss the employment aspect of the National Autism Strategy.

Executive function - sounds like something you get cured of when working in a big company right? Turns out it affects a lot of different aspects of our lives and probably way more than we realize. Join us to learn about the five core skills of executive function, what can happen when these skills need some support in development and how you can work on them. Does everybody with autism have an executive function deficit? Well ... does everyone in the world have blue eyes???? Anyone can have an executive function challenge but not everyone does ;)

CASDA is working hard to create a strong a National Autism Strategy to create opportunities for all autistic Canadians. Today's conversation is with Stephanie Cote and Vanessa Tomas. Two members of the CASDA team working on the National Strategy. Their focus is on employment with two projects: the Autism Employment Scan and the Autistic Voices Project. Visit: https://www.casda.ca/resources/ to learn more!

Join us to learn about what CASDA's been up to in 2020 and get involved in the conversation about the National Autism Strategy!

We're diving in to alone vs lonely today. Why? Because there is a HUGE misconception for both of these words when it comes to the autism community. There's the perception that autistic people don't want relationships and prefer to be alone. Wrong! There's also the perception that people who prefer to spend time with themselves are lonely. Also wrong! Let's find out more shall we?

Asking for help needs to be thought about differently. So many people refuse to ask for help because of ego. More can't ask for help because of anxiety. Some just don't know how. We need to fix this. Asking for help needs to be seen as a strength. Asking for help shouldn't induce anxiety but give a sense of relief. Asking for help doesn't require a plan, just an ask. The ask of, "help me figure out what my ask is". Let's just start there :)

We're back with another discovery tool to help autistic individuals build a stronger plan for employment success. How can the Career Personality Profiler help? It focuses on strengths and how to tie that in to employment options. It gives you ideas for careers you might not have considered. It taps in to the areas you might need to work on in order to be successful at any job. It also gives you ideas about what you shouldn't do as a career ;) We're using it to help autistic clients and invite you to take a look to see if it would work for you!

The autism community has had little access to discovery tools which align their mental state and employment goals. We're trying to fix that. With a lot of research, we're using the Enneagram tool to help an autistic individual learn more about their strengths, how they might react under stress in the workplace and plan their job search strategy accordingly. Interested? Good! We are too ;)

What is the right level of support for someone with autism to reach their full potential? What is the difference between medical language and accepting / empowering language? We need to fix the way people think about the folks in the autism community as having deficits vs being differently abled and being amazing, different, fantastic folks. Let's reframe the stereotype.

What is autism? Excellent question. Overall, it's a set of characteristics that individually are manageable. Collectively in one person? They can create an existence which requires some serious navigation skills in a society which does not normally embrace those who can be considered "different". Our point during this session with The Future Looks Good focuses on how the spectrum presents in so many different ways and it's time to embrace that.