Published on 12, July, 2020
Today completes an important step for the National Autistic Society. Today with Rule 13 they complete the abdication of responsibility for supporting autistic adults reaching out for help.You may remember in 2021 that the National Autistic Society closed its general helpline. There was a thread about it on this forum. As was pointed out at the time from that point onwards this forum became the only port of call at the National Autistic Society for help for people who did not qualify for one of the remaining helplines.And the remaining helplines pertain to children in school, children leaving school and parents of autistic children. The National Autistic Society has become a defacto children’s charity leaving autistic adults out in the cold.Now not content with refusing to help autistic adults they now seek to reduce autistic adults ability to help each other. I fully admit that a bunch of amateurs on an autistic support forum is a poor substitute for professional help. However the vast majority of those seeking such help now have nowhere to go professional or otherwise.Some of you know that I also brought a lawsuit against an organisation for discrimination. I reached out to the citizens advice bureau and got no useful help. I reached out to the EASS and they said that they couldn’t help me because the other party would not engage with them. I wrote to established academics with a background in discrimination law and autism and they said they couldn’t help me.Yes I rang that autism helpline back when it existed, back when I tried to get some justice and they said we can’t help you. But at least I spoke to someone who admitted that he was supposed to be able to help me. That helping me was what he was there for.With regard to the law when you bring a case for discrimination most of the time legal aid is not available. This is in part because the majority of discrimination cases go through the small claims track which is intended to operate without lawyers.Something similar applies to the health service. It’s very easy for autistic people to get sidelined in the health service particularly if they are bad at articulating their needs and concerns. Again I know this from personal experience.At this point if autistic adults come to this forum or the loved ones of autistic adults come to this forum and say they are having difficulty with the law or discrimination or a medical issue rule 13 interpreted strictly means that we can provide no helpful advice other than pointing to sources of help that in fact do not exist.For quite some time now I have run a website dedicated to helping autistic people defend their rights and oppose discrimination. I chose not to include a forum on that website because I was aware that policing it could involve a substantial amount of work. However this development has persuaded me to change my mind. So I’m announcing that areyoualien.uk now has a forum for autistic people. The focus of this forum like the website is advocating for autistic rights in government policy and the law and opposing discrimination. You are all very much welcome there.
I have a suspicion that one of these 2 threads might have caused some issues with regard to this.
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/mental-health-and-wellbeing/32838/are-there-any-antidepressants-that-don-t-make-you-feel-like-sensitivity-to-side-effects
In the above thread, however, we have an O/P who has sought and failed to find assistance with both professional bodies and charities set up for assisting in these situations and was in a precarious state of mind.
I found this thread stressful as I did another where a person was self-harming.
If we are unable to help people who are in quite extreme situations, when the mods aren't active, this puts us in a very difficult position.
In the second, below, the title was changed after posted.
It was the orginal title that particularly concerned me.
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/32931/cure-for-digestive-diseases
When looking back at these threads, whether or not they did influence the NAS decision, I can see how this may have come about, especially if there were complaints to the mods by users (not in my case).
I think it's just a case of going forward and seeing how this pans out.
As I said before, 'health' is physical and 'mental' and there are a heck of a lot of questions posted here, unsurprisingly, with regard to mental health.
We will simply have to make sure it's clear that we are speaking from experience but are not supplying advice.
This forum is the only resource I know of where intelligent autistic adults can talk about these subjects and support one another.
It seems to be that a balance needs to be struck.
Clare Mod I was just wondering if a general disclaimer could be posted by NAS regarding advice and then coupled with moderation both by yourselves and self-moderation, that might be an easier way forward for us?
Well spotted Debbie.Pause for thought.