Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I'm new to here and thought it would be a good place to ask for ideas and opinions.
My son is about to finish year 6 and has Aspergers, OCD and mild dyslexia. He is at least 2 years behind in his learning as he has been so anxious about everything. He doesn't go any further than our local park, won't travel in any form of transport that pollutes and refuses medication as he thinks it will 'hypnotise' him. Life is very limited for him at the moment.
It's looking unlikely that he will be able to attend a secondary school setting at the moment so the Local Authority have been good in being proactive and are trying to get him into another less mainstream provision which will use an alternative timetable. How we are going to get him to it is going to be a big hurdle, he's refusing to think of any changes at the moment.
The amount of stress on our family has been huge and has impacted every one of us. I work and love my job - it is the time when I'm able to 'be me' and can think of something else rather than family issues. I have worked my way up to where I am, studied hard and have been lucky to get my role. Problem is, it looks like I'm going to have to give it all up because of my son's needs and I'm really upset. I work in a pastoral role in a school and these are hard jobs to come by.
We have all the services that should be involved but things just haven't improved and he is now even more anxious about the changes ahead.
Anyone else been in a similar situation please? Anyone had to give up a job they loved and are now a stay at home mum?
Thanks for reading.
Hi NAS37290
Sorry to hear you are having a difficult and stressful time at the moment. In addition to the community's advice, I just wanted to let you know about a couple of services which could be useful:
Our Parent to Parent Service offer emotional support to parents and carers of children or adults with autism. You may like to contact them? This service is confidential and run by trained parent volunteers who are all parents themselves of a child or adult with autism. You contact the team on 0808 800 4106. Please leave a message and the team will call you back as soon as possible at a time that suits you, including evenings and weekends. Alternatively you can use contact the team via web form: http://www.autism.org.uk/services/community/family-support/parent-to-parent/enquiry.aspx
The Autism Helpline team could also provide you with information and advice. You may like to contact the team via telephone on 0808 800 4104 (Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 3pm). Please note that the Helpline is experiencing a high volume of calls and it may take a couple of attempts before you get through to speak to an advisor. Alternatively, should you prefer to send a message, you can do so via their webform: https://www.autism.org.uk/services/helplines/main/questions.aspx
Hope this helps,
Nicky-Mod