Title: Types of Support Available for Families with Members Living With Autism Spectrum Disorder | The Arc’s Autism Now Center
Headings: home
at home
Contents
What is Family Support?
Where does Family Support Policy come from?
What is the Desired Outcome of Family Support?
Who is Available to Support Families?
Examples of Family Support Programs/Initiatives
What Does Family Support Value in Practice?
Examples of How Family Support is Used
Who to Contact Regarding Family Support

Content: In the not so distant past, families were encouraged to send their children with disabilities to institutional residential care where they could have all their basic needs taken care of. As families began to question the role of these residential institutions, many of them began to realize that, in order to be able to function, they would need some additional support. Family support policy accelerated in the 1970s with the movement to deinstitutionalize individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and calls from parents to provide support to help individuals live at home. The basic premise behind family support policy is twofold: It is better for the person with a disability, who remains at home in a natural and supportive environment and, later,
It was more cost effective to support families where they lived rather than to rely on inefficient, large scale and complex congregate settings. In other words, for family support advocates, family support is the right thing to provide for families, and it is more cost effective than non-family residential arrangements. What is the Desired Outcome of Family Support? Ultimately, family support is designed to reunite, preserve, strengthen, and maintain families in their home communities, while making sure that the family members with disabilities have ample opportunities to exercise choice and self determination. Who is Available to Support Families? Family support is provided by a number of different organizations that are usually supported at the federal level but are increasingly implemented at the state and local level.