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Transforming Autism Care

longman

Latest news on the NAS Website "NHS England publishes plan to transform autism care".

The plan, welcomed by NAS is to close 50% of inpatient beds for people with autism or learning disability in the next three years. The responsibility will shift to local authorities to make community provision.

Like where? How? With what?  So there's a £45m budget - good news for administrators. How much of it will make provsions for care?

I can remember the Conservatives "Care in The Community" scheme to close down mental hospitals. Great idea to remove those ghastly places, but how many people slipped through all the safety nets and ended up living on the streets?

The incentive is similar - avoid bad care home situations.  But the fact is councils aren't up to speed on autism. In particular they cannot seem to grasp that people with autism without a learning disability also need support.

I know....I must try to be more optimistic....give it a try. But besides more homeless people on the spectrum this will mean more interim burdens on families, especially at a time when respite centres are being squeezed.

I just hope NAS with its identity crisis  - new articles for a Forum instead of a council etc - "has its eye on the ball" (whatever that means).

Doomed......

  • The use of police cells in this way I've heard about before, but it is shocking to see its implementation and circumstances set out so clearly. http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/03/10/police-cells-used-substitute-health-social-care/

    Does the NAS helpline cover nights spent in police cells to counter bed blocking.........?

    The business of not getting supported without a learning disability just stinks, and I keep coming up against evidence of this.

    If anything support for autism is going backwards. I will scour the NAS helpline for answers but am not hopeful.

  • Hi ajl338,

    Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm sorry that you are finding things difficult at the moment. I've removed the location of your services as we recommend not referring to specific services in our community rules. I understand from the post that you are receiving some support but would like to suggest contacting our helpline which you can also email as we may be able to signpost you to further services/support.

    I hope that this helps you but if not please don't hesiate to conatct us so we can help Smile

    Sofie Mod

  • unfortunatly being autistic is a mental health problem where i live [removed by mod]. Its managed by the partnership that covers MH and Austism. From personal experiences they are not very good at managing either.

    The inpatient MH units i have been in have little regard for my autism. I dont have learning difficulties and am intellegent i just cant cope on a ward full of noise and happenings. I am often unable to express myself and when asked say i'm fine when im not.

    My MH trust has / is just opening a new hospital, i am led to believe that its all 5* facilities but they are closing some other wards and overall loosing a number of beds. Their arguement is that they are doing more in the community to prevent people from needing beds. So why then have i spent a number of nights in the police station in a cell when i have been picked up by the police becuase there isnt a MH bed available. I have been arrested by the police from the MH unit to free up a MH bed on the day that i was officially made homeless so i didnt become a bed blocker and left to sleep on the street.

    but still there powers above quote that statistics show them there isnt the need for beds. I'm currently waiting on a special neuropsychiatry unit with an over 9 months waiting list, i'm living in tempory accommodation and the social worker gets sent to see me every 2-3 weeks to check i am still alive ( i cant think of any other reasons for her 10 min visit.)

    My biggest fear and cause of anxiety is ending up back in the MH unit. It is everything someone with autism dreads, no routine, empty promises, changes occuring by the minute, noise, bulleying, assults ( by staff and other patients).

    Someone needs to realise that having autism and not a LD doesnt necessarly make you into a MH case. They need somewhere someone with MH can go if they need some respite which is all the things a MH ward isnt. It would actually cost a lot less to provide a sensory room and some quiet than it would MH beds that cost a fortune overnight. The MH trust dont bare the cost of you being in police custody so for them its an easy/cheap option to get you looked after for the night. The police have been nothing my amazing to me but they have limits and should be doing other things not looking after me.

    What people are failing to recognise is that they are cutting day support to people. Services that cost relativley little but mean a lot to service users. They keep you out the main system and not as an inpatient. You then fail to register on the radar of the people that define how money is spent and the service is cut, you then cant cope and end up costing the system a lot more money but its a different set of stastics and a different pot of money.

  • There are too few autism care places now, but some exist, funded by the NHS. There will be too few autism care places in the future. The only difference is that the new plans mean that the National health service will not be paying for the under provision. Instead, the responsibility will fall on local authorities. So the cost is taken off the NHS budget and added to local authority budgets and blame for under provision passes from central Govt to local authorities. 

    This is what the Govt has been doing for some years now. It claims to put power into local hands, but in fact it puts responsibility there. It makes policies and recommendations that local authorities should follow. At the same time, it cuts local authority budgets. So patients are left with less than they had before, because local authorities cannot afford the new responsibilities.

    Then the Govt claims they have made marvellous improvements with their new policies and they blame the local authorities for failing to act on them.

    This is a government that is breaking up the health and welfare services, then blaming others. They are cynical and cruel. But we are supposed to be too stupid to understand. It is Machiavellian. Sly, deceitful and disgusting.