Autistic man finds new hope through CVTC program

Michael Francisco’s glance is unreadable, but his occasional smile is friendly. His fingers move deftly as he puts a line of gray metal screws into a small plastic bag as part of pre-vocational training.
Later, Michael never falters as he and Golden McDaniel, his aide and job coach, put inserts into the Sunday programs for Holy Cross Catholic Church.
And as he drinks his Coke at day’s end, he finishes up by squeezing the can like an orange, to get the last drop of juice.
Michael, nearing age 36, lives at Central Virginia Training Center. He and four other residents are enrolled in the CVTC Autism Day Program. The daily program is based on TEACCH, or “Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children,” used at the University of North Carolina.
Autism is often described as a puzzle, and it seems so with Michael Francisco. His is no vacant stare, and it seems that looking out from his eyes, in those rare and fleeting moments of eye contact, is a capable person, ensnared.
Autism is an intellectual disability with a range from mild to severe, but always involving problems in communication and social interaction. Nationwide, the prevalence rate for autism is now estimated to be 1 in about every 150 children. When Michael was born, it was considered a rare condition. Its cause is a mystery, but genetic vulnerability plays a part.
Her son was diagnosed as autistic when he was about 3½ to 4 years old, said his mother, Elke Reisgen of Charlottesville.
An especially beautiful child, he began losing the skills in preschool. At home, he wouldn’t sleep, became overactive and hard to control. And his speech wasn’t developing normally.
He was evaluated first in Roanoke, then at the University of Virginia, where psychologists said it was a lifelong condition.
His parents took him to the UNC program. Autism was confirmed, and he was enrolled in several Virginia programs for children. Over time, Reisgen and her son’s dad divorced. Michael aged out of most programs and was placed at CVTC by his dad, who was anticipating the development of an autism program at the state mental retardation residential program in Madison Heights.
That was 22 years ago.
Reisgen never gave up her efforts to see her son in specialized day treatment. And when Terry Mason, CVTC assistant program manager for the Autism Day Program, began working with him, “Michael started to blossom,” said Reisgen.
His medications were significantly reduced.
The program, piloted in September 2005, was the idea of a former CVTC psychologist, said Mason. Her small staff, which works virtually one-to-one with the challenging group, does incredible work, said Mason. Five residents, ages 28 to 48, are enrolled in the 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. program, three full time.
The participants have little interaction with each other, but daily structure is a significant goal for all.
“They need to know what’s going to happen next, what they’re finished with, and how their day will go,” said Mason.
If that happens, tolerance for new things increases, dissipating some of the frustration.
Each person has his own picture schedule board with tasks in a vertical line. Each colorful square is a photo or drawing — and occasionally a word — of the next task. After completing a task, the card is dropped into a container at the base. The next task is now first in line.
“Once they learn the concept of a schedule,” said Mason, “You can change the activities up, but they know that, ‘I do this, I go here, when I’m finished, I put the card in my finished box and I do the next thing that’s up there.’”
The scheduled tasks are built upon each person’s skills and interests.
“We are not trying to make anyone normal, but trying to let them find their way within their own world and give them some independence, some self-direction and self-determination,” Mason said.
Michael can count, but it is rote. So in prevocational training, he places 20 screws in a slot on a board, and then puts them, one at a time, in a plastic bag. When they’re all gone, he’s through with that bag. When all the bags are filled, he knows he’s completed that task.
This training has a goal. Some day he may be paid for doing this task for a manufacturer who needs screws, nuts and bolts used to assemble a product placed in plastic bags, said Bob Wells, CVTC director of vocational services.
Michael’s schedule includes a 15-minute break to listen to a music CD of his choice. He likes music, and at home, will dance with his mother. He completes his exercise regimen — sit-ups, stationary bike, glider and walking — he loves to walk.
Therefore, one of his tasks is checking for daily mail to the program, a matter of leading the way to the mailroom through a maze-like route of buildings and basements with aides Golden McDaniel or Ross Blondino.
As Michael puts on his jacket for the mail run, he glances quickly at the task photo in his hand — exactly the gesture of a man checking his watch.
Michael’s life is the older side of autism.
“A lot of what you hear is about children,” said Mason. “Our folks are not just big children. They’ve grown. They’ve got learning histories. They’ve found out that some of their behavioral excesses will get them what they want. You have to find out the function of their behavior in order to help change it if that’s something you want to change.
“Most of our folks display challenging behaviors because they want something, they’re trying to get out of something, or they’re in sensory overload.
“And that that’s pretty much why we all do it.”
Michael has problems dealing with stressful situations. Meltdowns happen, but not usually in day treatment.
“I’m pretty sure he can move on in life, to another step,” McDaniel said. “It’s all how he handles it.”
Michael is working in a community-based employment program, a major step.
The envelope-stuffing training he mastered at CVTC pays off as he inserts several pages into the Holy Cross weekly program. His CVTC group works for three other churches. This is real work for pay, explained Bob Wells
The noise level is high for a while, and Michael begins to rock back and forth, while repeating a nonsense phrase. But he keeps on task.
Margie Takacs, Holy Cross church secretary, said the church is glad to have the CVTC workers. “We consider them a part of the community,” she said. “They do a good job.”
Elke Reisgen, Michael’s mother, who is grateful to CVTC director Denise Micheletti for giving the OK for the Autism Day Program, says her son has fewer problems on home visits, now, and doesn’t resist returning to CVTC like he once did.
“He’s changed,” she said.