Report on autistic people’s access to mental health services

I’ve just looked again at this thread and it appears that the funding is about to collapse. It doesn’t surprise me, but it does enrage me, :(. This is exactly the sort of information/group that should be run across the whole of the UK, not just Scotland. I am in the UK, and am not surprised by the fact that funding has been taken away. It appears that anything that start to show that it can be helpful and supportive to an autistic individual, the funding is automatically stopped because it would need more funding, and the governments refuse to provide aid to those who need it, like us. For instance, when my statement of special educational needs stopped at 19, and I wanted to continue my education in the way I was receiving it, I couldn’t get it. My mother found a group called SKILLS, a group supporting disabled people in education, it had been around for 40 years, but was stopped, it was funding was taken away by this government.

It also shows up the inadequacies of mental health and other organisations that should be understanding and helping autistic people, but they don’t want to show that they are not being helped. It’s easier to shut them down so that they can hide behind the lies they’ve created, to prevent any of us seeking the support, advice and aid that we require and deserve.

As the woman said in the video, there should be more autistic led training for practitioners, not only for newly diagnosed autistic people, but those still suffering with mental health conditions should be given the correct mental health treatments. Even though autism is not a mental health condition, mental health conditions can arise by the way we have been abused and hurt by the outside world’s lack of understanding and lack of care for our conditions and lives. It is true that only autistic individuals truly know and understand autism, and it is they who should fully be involved in not only diagnosing autistic individuals, but making sure that each of us are provided with the help we need.

In fact, when I think about it, we should all be entitled to an autistic helper/supporter (who has autism themselves) who understands what we’re going through and provides us with the support we need, and to prevent healthcare ‘professionals’ blunders because they do not understand us and the struggles we go through. 

It’s appalling that we are being left to suffer like this, :(. I can never forget the way I was left to suffer after my diagnosis of autism, and no one coming to help me, nor to talk through my issues to provide support.

I’ve just looked again at this thread and it appears that the funding is about to collapse. It doesn’t surprise me, but it does enrage me, :(. This is exactly the sort of information/group that should be run across the whole of the UK, not just Scotland. I am in the UK, and am not surprised by the fact that funding has been taken away. It appears that anything that start to show that it can be helpful and supportive to an autistic individual, the funding is automatically stopped because it would need more funding, and the governments refuse to provide aid to those who need it, like us. For instance, when my statement of special educational needs stopped at 19, and I wanted to continue my education in the way I was receiving it, I couldn’t get it. My mother found a group called SKILLS, a group supporting disabled people in education, it had been around for 40 years, but was stopped, it was funding was taken away by this government.

It also shows up the inadequacies of mental health and other organisations that should be understanding and helping autistic people, but they don’t want to show that they are not being helped. It’s easier to shut them down so that they can hide behind the lies they’ve created, to prevent any of us seeking the support, advice and aid that we require and deserve.

As the woman said in the video, there should be more autistic led training for practitioners, not only for newly diagnosed autistic people, but those still suffering with mental health conditions should be given the correct mental health treatments. Even though autism is not a mental health condition, mental health conditions can arise by the way we have been abused and hurt by the outside world’s lack of understanding and lack of care for our conditions and lives. It is true that only autistic individuals truly know and understand autism, and it is they who should fully be involved in not only diagnosing autistic individuals, but making sure that each of us are provided with the help we need.

In fact, when I think about it, we should all be entitled to an autistic helper/supporter (who has autism themselves) who understands what we’re going through and provides us with the support we need, and to prevent healthcare ‘professionals’ blunders because they do not understand us and the struggles we go through. 

It’s appalling that we are being left to suffer like this, :(. I can never forget the way I was left to suffer after my diagnosis of autism, and no one coming to help me, nor to talk through my issues to provide support.

As much as I sympathise, I think this falls into a common trap that people fall into and it misunderstands the role of government.  Everybody thinks that essentially their current issue-of-day is the World's most important issue, they're passionate about it, it's a travesty etc. etc. They then go on to think that as a result that current issue desperately deserves funding and that the government should do this and sort this problem out for them.

The thing is, there are many competing things deserving of funding.  It's also true, although somewhat movable at any point in time, that there is only a finite amount of resource available.  So if the role of government is anything, it's to try and find the most equitable distribution of resources that it can.

Unfortunately, this is complicated by the democratic system of government that we have, in that politicians tend to favour things that they think will win them votes so that they can continue to be politicians.  As a result, resource distribution is often skewed in seemingly bizarre ways until you realise that all the politicians are trying to scratch each other's backs, and pander to their special interests etc.