Our News.
Headlines
Below are articles and news related to the work of the branch. These will be updated regularly, so keep checking back.
Click on the relevant link to be taken to the news item.
Race Night News
Mark and Fergus complete Glasgow 10K run in aid of IASG
Craig runs Glasgow Half Marathon (3rd September)
Summer Ball rolls to the tune of a massive £5000
A Parachute Jump, an Inverclyde school and local Bar all help raise funds
Web Site Update
Fundraising News
Fundraising Clairvoyance Event at Gamble Halls
AGM 2005
Fundraising Update
NAS launch "PARIS" site
Scouts raise money for Saturday Club.
Managing Difficult Behaviour Workshop Overview
The East Inverclyde Integrated Community School Project
A Champion Night
The winning post was the end target for our race horses, and every horse galloped home to help make the night a great success. By the time the horses were put back in their stables for the night, they had helped us to raise £716.57.
The loretto club had been the winnning venue for this years event and along with Races, the night also included a Disco, Buffet and an auction of underwear.
IASG would like to thank everyone who helped make this event a success.
Mark and Fergus run Glasgow 10k in aid of IASG
Mark and Fergus Monk successfully completed the Glasgow 10k run, with Mark crossing over the line in 51 minutes and with Fergus just behind him with 1 hour 9 minutes.
Mark, Fergus and Aileen hope that their efforts will raise around £1000.00 pounds for the Inverclyde branch.
Mark and Aileen have a son with asperger syndrome who attended the summer playscheme.
Craig runs Glasgow Half Marathon
Local man Craig Ross sucessfully completed the Glasgow Half Marathon on 3rd September in aid of IASG.
He completed the event in 2hrs 1 minute.
The event sponsored by Fresh "n" Lo, started at George Square and wound 13 miles through Glasgow before finally ending at the Peoples Palace in Glasgow Green.
Craig now hopes that his sucessful effort will raise around £1000 for IASG funds.
If you want to know a little more about the race then you can click on this link.
Fresh "n" Lo Glasgow Half Marathon
Summer ball
Eileen Boyle and her team held a Summer Ball in the Gamble Hall in Gourock on Saturday 24th June and raised a massive £5000.
Many Thanks to all who helped organize the Ball, donated prizes for the raffle and auction. Thanks also to Ian of Firth Coaches for very kind offer of free transport for a group trip.
Update for Web site
Nothing stays the same for long in the world of PCs and software. Each year something new takes over as the IN thing and we are no different. Our site has just completed a another mini-makeover bringing us up to date with advancing site design standards.
As before this site will grow as new material and content is added and If you feel it still needs that little extra, or something you like or dislike, then please contact our webmaster at Grianaig Design & Multimedia with your thoughts.
Conn's parachute jump
Ever thought of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane??? No!
Well thats' exactly what Conn Nelis did, and raised £600 for IASG with his brave effort.
It's ok he did have a parachute!
Inverkip Primary
Inverkip Primary presented us with a £113 donation.
The Norseman Bar
The Norseman Bar donated £110.
Once again the group would like to say a very big Thank You to all those concerned in the above fundraising efforts.
Fundraising News
Race Night held on the 5th May, raised over £700. Thanks to all who helped in any way to make this night a success.
The Psychic evening in the Gamble Hall on 10th march raised £400. Many thanks to all those who attended or bought tickets.
Special thanks to Charles and Josephine for covering the cost of the hire the hall.
The Charity Shop in the Oak Mall raised a superb £1400 over the week.
Special thanks are due to Pat, Ann, Margaret and Maureen for all their hard work.
The Group would also like to thank Bill Reid, Manager of the Oak Mall for his continued support.
An Evening of Clairvoyance
There will be an evening of Clairvoyance with Josephine MacKenzie and Charles McLaughlin in the Gamble halls, Gourock on Friday the 10th of March.
The event will start at 7:30pm and tickets cost £3.
For more details please contact us via our email address. We will be holding a raffle on the night, and would be grateful for any donations.
AGM 2005
The Group's AGM will be held on Monday 26th September at 7:30pm in the Fitzgerald Centre.
If you are interested in standing for Election to the committee or becoming part of the resources group, please contact Elaine on 01475 636382 or let her know at the August meeting.
Our Chairperson, Angela Gallacher, will not be standing for re-election.
It is important that this position is filled.
Copies of the Agenda will be available on the night of the AGM.
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Fundraising Update
Lots of people have been giving their time and working very hard at the following recent fund raising events.
Race Night at the Dockers Club, 18th of March, raised over a thousand Pounds.
Bingo Night at Holy Family Church, 20th April raised £400.
Charity Shop in Greenock Oak Mall, between 25th of April and 1st May, (Total to be confirmed.)
A very Big Thank You to Kathleen, Vicki and Pat, (and Pat's army of Charity shop helpers) for all their hard work.
Donations
The following donations have been received. £300 from 32nd Inverclyde Scouts.
£200 from Inverclyde Innocents.
£661 from Gourock Torpedo Club.
£695 from T-Mobile Greenock. Thanks to all for their generosity.
PARIS Web site
The National Autistic Society have just launched their new information website.
The Public Autism Resource and Information Service site is aimed at providing information and resource details to parents and carers in one handy location. Click on the image to access this site.
Scouts raise money for Saturday Club.
Beavers from the 32nd Renfrew/Inverclyde Scout Troop recently raised £200 to help with the setting up of the "Saturday Club".
Cub Scouts also donated £140 from a Carol concert held on the 7th of December. Thank You to both groups for your generous donations.
Managing Difficult Behaviour Workshop- 4th Sept 2004
Elaine Anderson gives an overview of this NAS workshop.
Along with around 20 other parents & carers, I attended the NAS workshop on Managing Difficult Behaviour at the NAS Offices in Glasgow in September this year. Michael McCreadie, Head of Education, at the NAS Residential School at Daldorch in South Ayrshire took the workshop. The school caters for children from all over the UK & has 40 residential & 4-day pupils.
We began with ideas of what the parents classed as “Challenging Behaviour” – ideas included tantrums, hitting & kicking, throwing objects, verbal abuse but also withdrawn behaviour. We all agreed that the context of the behaviour was what defines it as challenging or not. (e.g. was it happening in the middle of Tescos!)
Also discussed was the “iceberg analogy” – that the behaviour can be seen but often there is much below – i.e. stress, anxiety, like & dislikes, emotions.
The main theme that ran through the workshop that was that in order to try & reduce the person’s challenging behaviour we have to try & understand what causes it. Michael discussed “antecedents & triggers” – the pre-disposing factor is the antecedent e.g. being afraid of dogs & the trigger is what sets the behaviour off e.g. seeing a dog. Another example would be poor coping skills & communication skills as an antecedent & being in a busy & noisy supermarket acting as a trigger. To manage these behaviours he suggested learning coping skills or using “competing” or alternative stimulus.
Michael also suggested “ABC” charts – Antecedent (& trigger), behaviour & consequence - by using these parents can target behaviours & their frequency. He suggested rating the severity of behaviour on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst & 1 only being short in length and causing only mild distress. Parents could then gain clues as to what was causing both very & mildly challenging behaviours by using these charts & hopefully be able to avoid or reduce situations, which caused challenging behaviour.
The discussion then moved to the communicative function of behaviour e.g. it may communicate a need for contact or social interaction or may just be a way of expressing how the child/young person is feeling. An example given was that a child might hit not because they are angry but because they want interaction with a person but can’t communicate this verbally.
The final section of the workshop discussed what was called the “Functional Analysis” of behaviour. This was split into 4 points – define the behaviour problem, identify possible causes, predict when behaviour will occur & define an effect treatment programme. Analysis could lead to avoidance of a task, attention of adults/peers, gaining reinforcement.
In summary, this was a worthwhile course to attend. It seemed to emphasise that point that we should be trying to look past the actual behaviour (although at times this can be a challenge in itself), try and analyse why this occurs & hopefully develop a strategy to reduce the behaviour & help the child/young person cope more easily. The message seemed to be that we should try & “think like they think”.
The course was helped in the way it was delivered by Michael McCreadie who was both interesting & often amusing and he was happy to answer parents’ questions both during & after the workshop.
If you are interested in finding about more about challenging behaviour the following authors where recommended at the workshop – John Clements, Simon Baron-Cohen, Eva Zarkowski,
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East Inverclyde Integrated Community School Project
On the 9th October 2003, at the Port Glasgow Library, The East Inverclyde Integrated Community School Project launched their exhibition for Scottish Mental Health Week 2003.
The selection of artwork and poetry on display had been created by East Inverclyde Primary 7 and 1st year pupils, and an overall winner from each school involved was presented with a £10 book voucher.
The winner from St. Mungo's which houses the Language and Communication Base attended by a number of autistic pupils was Ryan Gallacher our own Angelas' son!
Ryan was diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome at the age of 7, is in Primary 7 in St Mungo's and about to move on to St Stephen's High School.
Although attached to the base, Ryan is very much a mainstream pupil and coping very well as such.
We hope you like Ryan's picture as much as the judges did, which as you will notice reflects one of his special interests - roads and road signs!
We would like to applaud Ryan and also applaud this Project which is particularly relevant being that children on the autistic spectrum are more prone to mental health problems in later life due to their social/communication difficulties. We feel that more needs to be done in the way of intervention for these children to help prevent these problems in later life.
You can read more about what we are trying to achieve in Upcoming Events.
If you would like to view all the other excellent entries, the exhibition is at present finishing up at the Port Glasgow Health Centre.
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