Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am an autistic adult who is a parent. Since having my daughter I went through a terrible time with social services who set me up to fail and removed my daughter from me because I have a diagnosis of autism. It took me two years to fight for my daughter back and through this time social services and Cafcass used the so called deficits of my autism to justify the removal and to stop the return of my daughter. Thankfully the judge saw through this and returned my daughter concluding in her judgment that I parent my daughter to a high standard.
I want to know how many my adults will autism who are parents have been through a similar situation. How many parents with ASD and other disabilities and or impairments are being targeted by social services and having their children removed? If you have experienced this please tell your story because the current system is outrageously discriminative against parents who have a disability and or impairment and I would like to raise awareness of the current failures within the current child protection system which is targeting parents with disabilities and or impairments so that change can happen.
Hi I was hoping someone could help. I had my baby months ago. My partner at the time was undiagnosed with autism. He had a autistic melt down and resulted in me being hit by a gate the social took our daughter away. Made me stay away from him. Now I’m hoping to get her back however im worried they say he can’t have anything to do with her or me because of autism, anyone been in similar situation
I take it you decided to stay with your abusive partner? When people do this, autistic or not, they often feel the victimised parent cannot protect their child. After all, you have chosen to take the risk of violence against yourself, but you have no right to accept that risk on behalf of a child, and they have to assume that someone with the lack of control to stop themselves being violent against their partner likely lacks the same control against anyone, including children.
My mum was in an abusive relationship with my dad as a very young mum. She made the best decision for me and separated from him and had an injection against him from approaching us. Needless to say, social workers didn't need to remove me.
This isn't a problem about autism, this is a problem about staying in an abusive relationship. It takes a lot of strength to walk away from any relationship, even a violent one. Especially when that person is the parent to your child. If you want to remain with him though then you will likely need to accept that they aren't going to return your child to you to be at risk of his violence outbursts.