Helmwood Autism Support Group

Barbara Mitchell & Lori Hill

The Helmwood Autism Support Group has been meeting since September 2009. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30 pm in the lower level of Helmwood Health Care Center, 106 Diecks Drive in Elizabethtown. Since we are a fairly new group, we are working on sponsoring autism awareness events in the future.

For our meetings, we structure them so that about 75% of the meetings feature a workshop format, based on the interests of our parents. About 25% of the meetings are used for open discussion of various topics.

As we are relatively a new support group, we haven't seen a real "success" story but we do see a growth in participation, both parental and professional. We serve a multi-county area (Grayson, Hardin, Meade, and Larue) and provide presenters of specific interest to the group members. Our newest members have expressed positive changes at home and increased advocacy ability through the support group. I also see some of the members with older children interacting with members of the younger children and giving them tips and ideas. Through our group also we have been able to help some of our autism children through our therapy sessions here at Helmwood.

Dr. Lori Hill, SLP, CCC has over 20 years experience working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She is trained in behavior analysis and is currently working on publishing a series of books to assist in teaching language to children with autism. Barbara Mitchell is the Rehab Administrative Assistant for the Helmwood Healthcare Center outpatient facility. She coordinates the speakers that we have at our support group. She has 7 years working with people with disabilities.

For more information about our group, please contact us at (270) 769-0058.