** ANNOUNCEMENT ** : the NAS helpline is closing from 19th may

so what this means in practice is a lot of people who previously rang the helpline (or emailed them) are likely to start posting here asking for help instead?

yes a lot of people arrive here from all sorts of places and I help redirect many to the Helplines where the staff are well trained and skilled to advise people on their options especially via the NAS offices.  You can tell a lot from a persons voice. 

This is not good. 

Where I Live,,,, it has been on the news how golf clubs are getting money to help them survive being closed due to COVID  but they didnt need the money and didnt give it back. I 'm talking about Millions.

Unfortunately my experience with the phone line is while they were very sympathetic they weren't able to signpost me to useful resources. I suspect the helpline mostly acts as a tea and sympathy service and a referral point for the other helplines. The reality is NAS seems to have comparatively few resources aimed at helping autistic adults, especially those with out intellectual disability.

To be honest it's surprising they don't have an autism related employment problem helpline. Even amongst those who seem to think autistic adults problems are small potatoes there is generally recognition that there is a real need in the area of employment. I suspect there are a lot of autistic people with out a union or with out a sympathetic union who would benefit from an advise line for employment related issues.

That's before you look at wider issues like social contact, family and relationships, dating, parenting, care in old age, engagement in public life, etc.

We really ought to start helping ourselves (each other), because no one else is going to. Maybe we could start a link thread for resources specifically aimed at high functioning autistic adults and ask the mods to pin it? It this group that's going to miss out most from the shutting of this phone line I think.

Unfortunately my experience with the phone line is while they were very sympathetic they weren't able to signpost me to useful resources. I suspect the helpline mostly acts as a tea and sympathy service and a referral point for the other helplines. The reality is NAS seems to have comparatively few resources aimed at helping autistic adults, especially those with out intellectual disability.

To be honest it's surprising they don't have an autism related employment problem helpline. Even amongst those who seem to think autistic adults problems are small potatoes there is generally recognition that there is a real need in the area of employment. I suspect there are a lot of autistic people with out a union or with out a sympathetic union who would benefit from an advise line for employment related issues.

That's before you look at wider issues like social contact, family and relationships, dating, parenting, care in old age, engagement in public life, etc.

We really ought to start helping ourselves (each other), because no one else is going to. Maybe we could start a link thread for resources specifically aimed at high functioning autistic adults and ask the mods to pin it? It this group that's going to miss out most from the shutting of this phone line I think.

Peter said:

The reality is NAS seems to have comparatively few resources aimed at helping autistic adults, especially those with out intellectual disability.

The NAS is uninterested in helping this section of society.

Peter said:

We really ought to start helping ourselves (each other), because no one else is going to. Maybe we could start a link thread for resources specifically aimed at high functioning autistic adults and ask the mods to pin it?

I think it would be better to start a new organisation from scratch.

There is an independent British ASD forum.

https://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php

Could they pick up the slack?

My experience of things is that parents of children find resources using Google or they ask on parenting forums like Mumsnet now that (knowledge of) ASD is mainstream unlike the situation 25 years ago.