Finding My Peace

Hello, my name is Angela Butler, LPC, ASDCS. I am the owner of Finding My Peace.

As you may know, services for an autistic youth can be difficult to find, much less afford. In many areas, even getting an assessment is a journey. Here in my hometown, I am one of a very few individuals trying to provide services to an ever-growing number of youth whose needs go unattended daily. Unfortunately, these youth get placed in special education and mental health services, which neither are appropriate, and from there the torture begins.

They are placed in classrooms with other children who are actually delayed, and they replicate the delay despite their high intelligence, which is never acknowledged. They are provided an IEP or 504 plan, which then supports their lack of motivation and suppresses the need to feed their intellect, and they slowly turn into behavioral problems as well as failing.

They are placed in mental health agencies where they are not allowed to assess for autism and given alternate diagnoses that mirror autism but are completely wrong. While this may seem like no big deal, the therapy and medication provided to the youth based on this inaccurate diagnosis, through no fault of the providers, can be dangerous and life-altering, not to mention the cognitive and physical effects that take place from the medications. Some medications have been known to develop psychosis in an autistic child, which then can develop into a variety of psychosis centered diagnoses depending on treatment and actions taken. This all happens with no knowledge that the child is autistic since mental health agencies are not classified to assess for or treat autism as it is a developmental disability, not mental health. Only trained providers can make that distinction.

What we are setting out to do at Finding My Peace is to create a centralized location for all services regardless of income in one location. That includes assessment and services, as well as support groups for both the youth and their families. We will assist them in qualifying for the appropriate insurance to have all services covered.

We see the need and wish to answer with a solution. Feel free to visit our website, https://www.find-my-peace.com/autism-service-center and look at the number of services we look to provide as well as our future endeavors of adding on in-home services to support in-home functionality, opening autistic schools for our high-functioning youth, an urgent care to address their medical needs, and research and development to assist with creating safer medications for our autistic population!