2010 Nutmeg Tour preparing to depart from St. Vincent's Westport Campus
St. Vincent's Behavioral Health Services has been involved with the Fairfield County Concours for the past three years. Since then, approximately $70,000 of proceeds from the FCC has gone towards helping St. Vincent's, a non-profit health provider, develop a program to offer diagnostic and treatment services to children and adolescents with developmental disorders including individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. According to Autism Speaks, it is estimated that one in every 110 children is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. An estimated 1.5 million individuals in the U.S. are affected by autism.

St. Vincent's Autism Spectrum Program has served clients since the summer of 2010 and has helped many wonderful families in the Fairfield County community through resource coordination, behavioral skills and self-regulation groups, parent support groups, testing and therapy.

St. Vincent's has an excellent team of clinicians participating in St. Vincent's Autism Spectrum Program including:
Susan Dieterich, PhD - Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Mary Stone, EdM - Certified School Psychologist
Melanie Pearl, PhD - Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist
Annemarie Callagy, LCSW - Resource Coordinator and Social Worker 


Pictured are: Annemarie Callagy, LCSW - Resource Coordinator and Mary Stone, EdM - School Psychologist and Group Facilitator.

St. Vincent's Autism Spectrum Program is honored to once again be the beneficiary of the Drive to Treat Autism at the 2011 Fairfield County Concours. Proceeds from the Nutmeg Tour and Toast of the Tour cocktail reception, both taking place on September 17th, will go towards clinical programming and family resources. St. Vincent's is grateful for your support as they continue to grow the program and offer much needed and unique services to these deserving members of our community.

For more information about St Vincent's program or to make a contribution, please call Whitney Wasserman at 203-221-8885 or visit www.stvincentsbehavioralhealth.org .

From Erik in Fairfield:

"My wife and I have had the experience of enrolling our son in many social groups to assist with his disability affecting communication with his peers.  Many were nothing more than semi-structured play groups.  The program at St. Vincient's Behavioral Health was the first that had true structure, goals and a formal debriefing, so we knew exactly where our son progress was at the end of the program's session."

 

From Tina in Westport:
 "We have been so pleased with our experience with St. Vincent's Autism Services.  They show a true understanding for the broad impact Autism has on the individual child, as well as on siblings and the family as a whole.  I feel within their autism group, my son has been open to explore and develop important areas he typically finds difficult or ignores. I believe this is due to the care and expertise of the St. Vincent staff, which enables my son to feel safe and less anxious in their group.  Importantly, he has fun and enjoys being part of a group, complete with friends, compromise, hard work and laughter."

Any event like our Concours would be impossible without our valuable volunteers.  Online registration will be available on our website in May.  We will announce the start of online registration in an upcoming Insider.  Please plan on helping us the weekend of September 17-18, 2011.