I've seen the four questions that NAS Campaigns have highlighted from the Government consultation on social care (deadline 15th August).
It is not that I disagree with the four questiions, but to me NAS wants us to convince the Government about needs that NAS doesn't appear to raise on its own website. Surely the place to start pressing for these changes is for NAS to provide the information local authority services can consult.
Question 1 is about the need for specialist assessment. But NAS isn't clear as to what the specialist should be looking for. When people look up the NAS website about autism, they get the triad of impairments. That's what health and community service professionals consult. NAS seems to be saying that is not enough.
Could NAS moderators please raise with campaigns what they want the specialist to determine. At present NAS's only illustration is about asking the right question - if "how are you?" elicits "fine" as a response, that's not asking the right question.
We are supposed to make suggestions here as to why people on the autistic spectrum should get specialist assessments. But I think it is up to NAS to explain this better.
Question 2 is on risk of abuse, which may not continue as a criteria for social services provision. I don't think the NAS website adequately explains vulnerability to abuse, which is not adequately covered by a triad of impairments based explanation, and the NAS campaigns illustration is someone potentially facing bankruptcy - I'm not sure the Government would understand the connection.
Again we are supposed to make suggestions.
Question 3 is on assistance with activities. Needing prompting to do things, which is the NAS Campaigns illustration, is very pertinent, but it isn't explained as an issue on the NAS website, and I can see Government having difficulty comprehending why needing prompting is an issue. NAS needs to explain such difficulties properly on their website.
Again it is being left to us to explain this. Could NAS be more helpful in suggestion what they want said here?
Question 4 is on forming relationships and making friends. This again may no longer qualify for support. But the NAS website explanation of living with autism is about social communication problems, nothing to explain relationships or friendships. Surely if this is important the NAS website needs to cover it.
I can, to some extent, see the Government's difficulty in supporting services they might perceive as being for trivial reasons that could be got round another way.
To convince the Government this is important we need to explain better WHY people with autism do need this kind of support. For that to be achieved NAS needs to explain this properly on their website, and not just rely on us to tick the right boxes for them.
