Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there,
Just wondering, does anyone else feel as though there is zero support out there? I have searched and searched including on this website and it just seems the only real support is for children, parents/guardians/carers of autistic children or severely autistic adults. I am high functioning autistic with a diagnosis in the past couple of years. It feels as though no one cares. Once I got my diagnosis there was zero follow up at all. Nothing. Is it not the people who have always struggled through life and never known why that need support? Of course children and severely autistic people need support, but it feels as though high functioning adults are completely left behind as if because we are high functioning we can cope on our own. I have been completely and utterly lost since graduating university with no direction and no purpose. I am one of the 88% of adults with autism who are out of work, but there is just no support to help those 88%.
I feel like I am slowly going insane and no one seems to care or want to help.
Am I the only one?
Sophie
call your Local authorities for a needs assessment, they can arrange extra pre and post employment support. A needs assessment isn’t only for people who need significant care needs but for anyone who needs extra support.
the needs assessment can result in support with rehousing, employment , educational opportunities, social events, benefits and basic life skills.
Needs assessments can help a lot of people but my concern is that it only provides a modest amount of money, it doesn’t do anything to ensure there are suitable services localy to spend that money on.
It's not about money. It's about support. Some of the support is hidden or only accessible once a needs assessment has taken place. Some of the the support most people need is locked behind a referral system. once the needs assessment has taken place then they will be able to access to support and sign post to specialist organisations that specialise in people with autism like genius within and the social inclusion and housing support.
Despite lockdown local authorities have spent significant money into looking into employment for disabled people and housing support. Its why many councils have increased council tax to pay for the additionals in social care and support services.
Ok but we're talking about adults with high functioning autism. I know some of us certainly have difficulty finding work because our soft skills are lacking but our technical skills and qualifications are often very good. Work coaching is more about finding ways to insert ourselves into the specific industries we're well qualified for. And social housing often inappropriate for adults with high functioning autism.
Social inclusion requires so much more than just trying to put a lot of autistic people together in a room and asking them to play scrabble or something like that. We need services for social mainstreaming. Ways to help autistic people build social lives among neurotypicals. There aren't enough high functioning autistic people out there for them to find other autistic people on their 'wavelength.'
Some autistic people are introverts, others extroverts, some noisy, some quiet, and they have a huge range of different interests. It's going to be far more effective to help a noisy, extroverted autistic person integrate with a community of noisy extroverted neurotyicals who share their interests than with a bunch of quiet introverted autistic people who don't. But that doesn't mean its easy and doesn't require help.
These sorts of mainstreaming services don't exist. The closest thing I've heard about is a support worker who might accompany an autistic person and hold their hand, but that's only helpful if the support worker can actually find a suitable event or activity that said autistic person can go to.