遇见玛琳·C（Marlene C.）

When Marlene's parents immigrated from Mexico over 35 years ago, they opened the door for their daughter to pursue her dreams. Now, Marlene is a first-generation college graduate working as a licensed clinical social worker at UCI Health’s Center for Autism, a member site of the Autism Speaks-supportedAutism Care Network.

但是，尽管她的生活与父母的生活大不相同，但玛琳从未忘记她的根源。玛琳（Marlene）的工作致力于帮助南加州的西班牙裔家庭克服障碍，以获得优质的自闭症护理和服务。她一直热衷于帮助低收入家庭从事一项职业，以教育西班牙裔父母有关自闭症的知识，并提倡在频谱上的儿童，青少年和年轻人的需求。

在此问答中，更多地了解了玛琳的职业旅程和支持加利福尼亚西班牙裔家庭的工作。

您能告诉我您在UCI自闭症中心的工作吗？mi.18luck

I do a lot of case management and family navigation here at the UCI Center for Autism in Santa Ana, Calif. I primarily work with the Spanish-speaking community and low-income families who have children with special needs, such as autism, intellectual disability and ADHD. What led me down the path of social work has always been to listen and help others. I always wanted to help others and be a part of something much larger than myself.

In working with low-income families, there are lots of barriers and obstacles to overcome when it comes to accessing treatment. For example, language barriers, transportation issues, following through with appointments, housing issues and fear of applying for government benefits due to immigration status. Sometimes, there's a family of five people living in one room with a severely impaired child who needs some form of treatment or Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, and the family has a hard time obtaining that treatment because of their living situation.

因此，过去六年来，我的目标和我的角色是真正倾听家人，听取他们的担忧并帮助他们克服这些障碍，并获得对孩子的干预以及对整个家庭的支持。接受精神健康疗法可能是禁忌的，因此我致力于教育家庭有关这种支持的价值，帮助他们为他们提供的价值，并分享我可以帮助他们的其他方式。我还倡导那些没有得到所需的支持的孩子，并赋予父母倡导孩子的能力。

How do you educate the Hispanic community about autism?

A big part of my role here is providingworkshops in Spanishto families and connecting them with other people in the community, like professionals and other experienced families. Our workshops typically go from 30 to 100 people, and that's something I'm very passionate about.

在大流行之前，我们亲自主持了这些研讨会。我们将邀请30个家庭，提供一顿饭并提供托儿服务。我们将有拉丁裔西班牙裔日子，西班牙裔医生会谈论自闭症。这是一个美丽的活动，我们看到整个家庭都聚在一起。我们确实在自闭症中心创建了一个无判断的区域。

Since 2020, we moved to teaching these workshops remotely on Zoom. The remote workshops have helped us connect with so many families who have children with autism across the United States and in other countries like Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

目前，我有一个为期六个月的系列介绍过渡，每个月，我们都会讨论一个不同的话题，例如保护，替代保护，学校过渡，社会保障，Medi-Cal等。我们有关于ABA的课程，以鼓励家庭学习更多。我们还有一个拉丁裔家庭咨询委员会，该委员会举办有关安全性的研讨会，倡导您的孩子和心理健康。

On September 10, we are hosting our second annual conference. We have a psychologist who's coming in and talking about the difference between autism and ADHD. We’re going to have a school psychologist talk about tips on accessing special education and what to do when your child is not getting what they need. We’re going to have our Latino Family Advisory Committee do a presentation on how attending all of these parent workshops has helped them and their family.

How does your culture impact your approach to social work?

在墨西哥长大并通过直系亲属和大家庭与我的文化保持联系的父母确实帮助我与社区建立联系，了解他们并赋予他们权力。它还帮助我注意文化以及如何始终考虑这种文化。听到他们的担忧和一些阻止他们获得治疗的障碍，有助于我改善我们在自闭症中心服务的提供者和家庭之间的沟通。

I’ve learned so much about autism from the community and all the professional medical and clinical staff who work at our clinic. I'm surrounded by amazing professionals, and I really value the first-hand experience I’ve had listening to families and really spending time to get to know them and connect with the community. I feel so grateful to have had that trust and privilege, knowing that the community really values the information and the workshops that we create.

Learn more

• 访问自闭症说西新利luck娱乐在线班牙语的资源
• Learn about the work being done at UCI Health’s Center for Autism
• See the full list of classes and events being offered by the Center for Autism in英语和西班牙语