Help and Support

Advisory Visits

Autism Queensland consultants can provide advisory visits to offer information, advice, support and individualised strategies to parents, staff and other personnel involved in the lives of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD). Find out more >

Telephone consultancy Support and information is available to families and carers of children with ASD and people working with children with ASD supported by the outreach service over the telephone or through written and e-mail enquiries. Where applicable, written information may also be provided. There is no fee for this service.

Family Support Services for 2010 Autism Queensland's family support service conducts support group meetings throughout the year for all family members Find out more >

NewsAQtion newsletter

To access copies of Autism Queensland's regular newsletter, please click here.

Support Groups

Autism Queensland Support Groups have been established in many areas of Queensland to support each other in coping with issues involved in being the parents or other primary caregiver of a person with ASD.

Many of the Support Groups work closely with Autism Queensland in order to:

• promote and further the knowledge and sympathetic understanding of the problems and behaviour of people with ASD
• foster community awareness and interest in the welfare of people with ASD
• encourage support and communication between parents, friends and carers of people with ASD
• organise outings/functions for the purpose of providing social interaction for people with ASD, their parents, friends and carers

These Autism Queensland Support Groups are:

The activities of the Autism Queensland Support Groups are covered under Autism Queensland’s insurance policy and receive some financial support from Autism Queensland.

Other support groups that have not yet been ratified as full ‘Autism Queensland Support Groups’ are being established in:

Please feel free to contact Autism Queensland if you would like further information.
Some of the support groups produce their own newsletters.

If you have trouble getting to a face to face Support Group, why not join our online support group forum. Our online support group is a “moderated” group. This means that all posts have to be released by the group managers (Family Support Team at Autism Queensland). This ensures posts are “Autism Spectrum friendly” and appropriate. You can read the posts, or leave posts in your own time… no meeting times or trouble finding carers so you can get to meetings. You can also browse through the online information on this page, more will be added as time goes on.

Step One

Or–

Step Two

– On the right hand side of the welcome page is “join this group”. Click here. If you do not have a google account, you need one, and it’s easy to do. Use your own email address and a password to get started… you don’t need to open a google mail (gmail) account. If you have already joined this group, and want to sign in, look to the top right hand side of the screen for the sign-in. Setting up a google group account will send an email to your nominated email account.  In that email is a link. Click on the link to activate your membership of this group.

Step Three

– Once you have joined the group and activated your membership, you can post messages including asking questions or answering questions asked by others. Don’t forget, this is a moderated group, so your posts will not appear immediately. They will however be released regularly, so it won’t be long before your post, along with others’ new posts, will appear.

The idea for this group is not that we, as moderators, answer all the questions… it is a support group, so
parents / carers can help each other out by sharing information and ideas. It’s free, it’s confidential, and it can fit in to your schedule whenever suits you… try it out!

MyTime groups provide local support for mums, dads, grandparents and anyone caring for a young child under school age with a disability or chronic medical condition.

MyTime gives parents the chance to socialise and share ideas with others who understand the rewards and intensity of the caring role. Parents can meet with people in similar circumstances to have fun, hear from others and find out about available community support. Research-based parenting information will also be available at group meetings. Each group has a play helper who can lead children in activities such as singing, drawing, playing with toys, blocks or sand so parents can spend time focusing on catching up with others.

To find out more about MyTime programs, please click on the link: www.mytime.net.au. More information about MyTime Playgroup programs can be found by clicking here.