Autism and old people

Saying goodbye with some anguish and melancholy.

I launched in my micro possibilities a campaign on various sites in favor of some form of assistance for old age aspies .      Many of them have never been diagnosed, many of them don’t even know of the origins of their suffering. If they are so called high functioning, they may have thought, before the revelation, that they were “normal” people even as they had to go through an enormous amount of effort, and a constant feeling that there was something wrong, some sort of self deception and falsity in what they did, in their job and family life, if they had one, which rarely happens. They are normally single and loners. Fatigue was not a help in their  perception of their efforts. In a sense old aspies are left to manage their own winter by themselves. Wisdom is nowadays not commodity requested by society.

 Dependence is an act of begging, which not many can rely on for their insularity. At a certain age they normally have no more families or relatives. “Friends”, or, better, acquaintances disappear. An old aspie cannot protect anybody, and cannot receive protection. Are severe autistics in better condition? Donna Williams maintains that they are less desperate. I don’t know.

A blind, a deaf mute, a limp receive some assistance, if anything by the social services. Aspies are invisible.

 

Parents
  • My response is to get involved. There may be a disability support group or forum near you. I did attend a forum for a number of years but it often consisted of "rubber stamping" - a political metaphor for the requirement to get community approval of policies. We'd get lectured on a policy by some idiot with appalling presentation skills, and asked to say how much we appreciated the council's efforts.

    I also sat on a neighbourhood management board representing disabled interests, a form of Community Engagement, until the Council scrapped them in 2010 in favour of officer led advisory groups (apparently these people understand their communities - NOT-).

    I've also served on a number of equalities committees, and been a disability coordinator in an HE establishment for some years till I retired.

    You need to see things in the broader context. Most disability provisions are "window dressing" - making it look like you are doing what is asked, but not actually doing anything productive. Since the Disability Discrimination Act doesn't seem to have led to lots of prosecutions (because for one thing it isn't easy to do now), many organisations are relaxing their disability provision on the basis they can afford to risk the odd prosecution.

    The reality is most peopole don't care about the disabled. The fact NAS is still struggling for funds in order to sustain adequate local provision is something repeated right across disabilities. Most able people don't care.

    I will get some aggressive mailings now for saying this, but society expects disabled people to "pull their weight" and make a contribution in spite of their difficulties. To some extent the social model has created a converse that people just have different abilities to contribute. I'm afraid to say that people on the autistic spectrum will not readily get much sympathy if it is perceived that the level of their disability doesn't prevent them contributing (notwithstanding concerns about the difficulty fitting in in workplaces). Hence Government attempts to reduce the numbers of disabled people not in work but receiving benefits.

    Suicide therefore is not an effective protest. So try something more constructive.

Reply
  • My response is to get involved. There may be a disability support group or forum near you. I did attend a forum for a number of years but it often consisted of "rubber stamping" - a political metaphor for the requirement to get community approval of policies. We'd get lectured on a policy by some idiot with appalling presentation skills, and asked to say how much we appreciated the council's efforts.

    I also sat on a neighbourhood management board representing disabled interests, a form of Community Engagement, until the Council scrapped them in 2010 in favour of officer led advisory groups (apparently these people understand their communities - NOT-).

    I've also served on a number of equalities committees, and been a disability coordinator in an HE establishment for some years till I retired.

    You need to see things in the broader context. Most disability provisions are "window dressing" - making it look like you are doing what is asked, but not actually doing anything productive. Since the Disability Discrimination Act doesn't seem to have led to lots of prosecutions (because for one thing it isn't easy to do now), many organisations are relaxing their disability provision on the basis they can afford to risk the odd prosecution.

    The reality is most peopole don't care about the disabled. The fact NAS is still struggling for funds in order to sustain adequate local provision is something repeated right across disabilities. Most able people don't care.

    I will get some aggressive mailings now for saying this, but society expects disabled people to "pull their weight" and make a contribution in spite of their difficulties. To some extent the social model has created a converse that people just have different abilities to contribute. I'm afraid to say that people on the autistic spectrum will not readily get much sympathy if it is perceived that the level of their disability doesn't prevent them contributing (notwithstanding concerns about the difficulty fitting in in workplaces). Hence Government attempts to reduce the numbers of disabled people not in work but receiving benefits.

    Suicide therefore is not an effective protest. So try something more constructive.

Children
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