I picked up some leaflets at a disability event a few days ago - they were on the Citizen Advocacy Scheme in my local area.
These services have been set up UK wide under a National Coalition, and are mainly directed at people with a learning disability, but include people with mental health problems. Many are national lottery funded.
What puzzled me is there is no mention of autistic spectrum anywhere, we seem to fall between the two categories as usual.
What these advocacy services provide is a volunteer to speak up for you (or help you speak up for yourself) to help you access services, or solve obstacles or hindrances to accessing services. They will help with housing, employment, health & social care, voluntary services, transition, etc etc.
I did find a NAS webpage on this subject. It is under Living With Autism - Adults with autism or Asperger Syndrome - Advocacy and Autism. This seems to be making the case for autism to be included in the provision, but "People with Asperger Syndrome, because of their fluent language, and average or above average IQ level, may not appear to need access to advocacy services. This can be misleading, and it is important that advocacy services are available for all people with an ASD".
The trouble is this seems to be a wish statement - currently autistic spectrum isn't covered by most of these services. And Services may suppose that it is the fault of people on the spectrum making use of such services.
NAS seems to be saying that people on the spectrum have to rely on NAS or Citizen's Advice Bureau. But they don't seem to be offering a way around this.
They say they contacted 55 such schemes but although 68% of them did support autism, many expressed concern about lack of knowledge or confidence in dealing with ASD issues.
They aren't being trained in support for people with autism. NAS is asking Citizen Advocacy Schemes to contact NAS.
Has anyone in the community forum used a Citizen Advocacy Scheme? Do members of the forum know they exist. More than two thirds apparently will help people on the autistic spectrum (even if they admit they know nothing about autism!). But how well is this kind of service publicised to people on the spectrum.
