CASE STUDY | Young person needs confidence to make friends while on ASD pathway

Reason for the referral

YP has difficulties making and maintaining friendships and this can cause some anxiety at school. YP is awaiting assessment for ASD. They would like to engage with more activities to build their confidence and meet other young people.

Goals

The goals/support agreed was:

• To support YP to engage with increased activities outside of the family home and to meet other young people.
• It was agreed to deliver a minimum of six 1-2-1 sessions to assess readiness for group/social activities and encourage YP to attend weekly activities with a suitable organisation within the community.

Intervention

The support provided was:

• 7 1-2-1 sessions took place
• TSS worker and YP looked at creative groups in Liverpool that are focussed on creativity, amine, and comics
• TSS worker, YP and parent met with a particular organisation to meet the staff and get used to the environment at creative group
• YP also attended a session at Positive Futures, however due to the distance between Positive Futures and their home, this was not sustainable.
• The remaining sessions focused on supporting YP in building their confidence to make and maintain friendships as well as confidence to continue accessing group activities.

Outcomes

Next steps for YP are to continue to access weekly group activities which they are now regularly attending and thoroughly enjoying. The goal is for YP to build more friendships as they continue their engagement with the organization through their weekly activities.

There has been a visible increase in YP’s confidence since pushing themselves to access group sessions with different organisations. You can see a real sense of pride and achievement with their overall presentation when discussing such achievements.

Impact

“I love that I can talk to people about all of the things I have always been interested in. I have never been able to do this before”. (Quote from YP)

YP is now regularly attending weekly group sessions where their confidence will grow, and they are meeting new people their own age.

YP’s confidence has grown significantly since accessing group activities on a regular basis. This has been identified by parents, me, and YP themselves.