Information and Resources
Autism is a complex developmental disability, and navigating autism resources can be daunting. As a free service to the autism community, AuSM endeavors to provide practical advice for individuals and families struggling to navigate systems, understand options, and obtain services and support to fit their needs. With empathy informed by our own experiences, AuSM’s Information and Resources team is available to listen, discuss options, and help connect you to programs, services, therapists, and support.
The fastest way to get a response to an Information and Resources question is to use our request form. Click here to fill out a request.
AuSM’s Information and Resources team can be reached at 651.647.1083 and info@ausm.org. We will respond to your request as soon as possible.
You can also reach us via text at 651.321.2909 – but please note that this is not a crisis line, and that you may not receive an immediate response. If you are in a crisis and having suicidal thoughts, we urge you to please call 988 for immediate help.
Please understand that our Information and Resources team is small, yet mighty. If we can help, we will – but to do what we can for our community, we cannot commit to going beyond what we can effectively accomplish. For our dos and don’ts, here is a primer on what we’re able to assist with, followed by several issues that are beyond our bandwidth and/or ability to take on.
We can help with:
- Recommendations on testing and obtaining a diagnosis
- County service guidance; advice on first proactive steps
- Locating providers for different types of therapies
- Autism-related questions that are not clinical
- Recommendations of general employment services
- Resources regarding social and support opportunities
- Recommendations of tools and adaptative tech
- Book and media recommendations
- Information about disability rights and laws related to autism
- And more, ask us
We are not able to:
- Provide clinical advice outside of therapy or consultation
- Offer legal advice
- Act as a mediator or in-person advocate for conflict resolution
- Assist with filling out applications for social security, medical benefits or county services
- Provide referrals to services general services that are not disability specific
- Offer any type of financial assistance
- Circumvent wait lists for any program or provide status information about wait lists other than AuSM programming
- Assist with finding housing or roommates
- Recommend day programs, group homes or school districts
This is not an exhaustive list; there are other issues we can’t directly resolve – but still, we’ll provide whatever guidance we can.
The answers to many of your possible questions may be found here in our website’s Resources section, including this searchable resource directory.
As an affiliate of the national organization, The Autism Society, we gladly share additional resources from their website here, including their Autism Source resource database.
Here are more resources from other organizations:
https://www.nami.org/help
https://988lifeline.org/help-yourself/individuals-with-neurodivergence
https://thinkingautismguide.com/resources