(Rivista Internazionale - December 1998: The French Hospitaller Works Help Autistic Adults - 2/2)

A personalised assistance
To take account of this specificity, the architectural plan of the Saint Jean di Rochefort-sur-mer Centre, like that of the old Savoy residence transformed into the Notre-Dame de Philerme - Casa Guelpa Longo Centre, helps orientation in the space, enables a good arrangement of the areas and makes the identification of the rooms easier. The interior decoration and reinforced furnishings are designed to avoid injuries.
The treatment of the residents, staggered so as to enable the best possible integration of new arrivals, is based on the Teacch approach developed in 1965 in North Carolina by Professor Eric Schopler and his team. Entirely personalised, this educational approach has five basic principles:
• the involvement and co-operation of parents
• precise diagnosis and assessment with suitable instruments
• structured teaching, i.e. organised with visual references, a circumscribed place for every activity and clear indications enabling the patient to know what to do, where, how and when
• personalised programme for each child tackling all the key aspects (communication, difficult behaviour, autonomy, etc.)
• emotional support for parents
Looked after by the multidisciplinary team (medical, paramedical, re-educational and medico-psychological assistance) all residents have their own Individualised Educational Plan approved and followed by their parents. Worked out on the basis of specific assessments, the plan takes into account residents’ needs, capabilities and limits, motivations and centres of interest. Regularly reviewed, the plan aims at the best possible development of the communicative potential of individuals, as well as what is most useful to learn for their adult life. With psychomotor activities, balneotherapy, pony riding, swimming, painting, music, dance, gardening, cake making, physical activity, cooking meals, etc, everyone participates in community living according to their own capabilities and with their own rhythms, thus developing their own independence and communication with daily life.
Specific activities are also organised, such as picnics, cinema and restaurants, since they form part of the therapy. The aim of the French Hospitaller Works of the Order of Malta is to create or strengthen a social link which not only permits autistic adults to live as best they can in our environment but also to take advantage of our social and cultural structures so as not to remain isolated in their own world. A work which is carried out day by day, modest yet essential.

Jacques de Dumast
President of the French Association
of the Order of Malta and of the French Hospitaller Works
of the Order of Malta

* (C. Milcent in "L’Autisme au quotidien", 1989)

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