Published on 12, July, 2020
Autistica have launched a campaign to break the cycle of autistic people being unnecessarily detained in mental health units. Many are trapped for years and the traumatic treatment they endure in unsuitable environments means that their mental health actually gets worse not better.
Most shockingly the article states that more than 60% of people detained in mental health units are autistic. The actual proportion could even be higher if services do not pick up on and assess for autism.
Details of the campaign can be found here. They are urging everyone to write to their MP and a proforma letter template is provided.
https://www.autistica.org.uk/get-involved/break-the-cycle
If you need any more convincing read the heart-breaking story of Jackie, who was sectioned in her 50s following the death of her father. She went through what can only be described as a living hell for several years.
https://www.autistica.org.uk/get-involved/my-autism-story/jackies-story
The loss of a parent can be a huge life change for an autistic person and trigger a mental health crisis. Realistically I could see myself in that situation in the not too distant future and that is extremely scary. Autistic people should not be afraid of seeking support for fear of being sectioned. We need to unite to stop this appalling mistreatment of our fellow autists.
Realisticly people have been writing letters for a long time. The goverment needs to feel more presure to be pushed to act. I think people need to start talking about orgonised acts of protest. Because we can't expect the goverment to take us seriously if we don't care about this enough to shove a cardboard sign on a stick and march outside their offices on the odd weekend.
I mean if we aren't at least that comitted why should they take us seriously?
I agree that we need to do more. Currently there is no evidence that the majority of autistic community are actually supporting these kind of campaigns.
Take the recent NAS petition that achieved around 18,000 signatures. That's quite pathetic really when you consider than there are 700,000 autistic people in the UK according to the NAS website (in reality probably far higher). Autistic people aren't particularly social but most would probably have at least one other family member who could also sign. It should have been relatively easy to achieve the 100,000 signatures needed for a parliamentary debate.
I'm not convinced that a traditional march or demonstration is the answer for the autistic community. There would be just too many differences to overcome to be able to get everyone in the right place at the right time. It would probably have to be a silent protest, personally I have to hit the mute button as soon as any news coverage of such a protest appears on the TV!
The autistic community includes a lot of IT experts. Maybe some kind of noticeable protest/disruption could be done that way, without doing anything illegal of course
I think the problem is that the majority of people most affected are in too vulnerable a position to do much or get engaged. They have too much on their hands just trying to survive the day. That's how government get away with it. The vulnerable all too often cannot speak up for themselves.
About 60% of that 700000 will be people with some level of suport needs, for them it's more did their carers care enough to sign. For the rest there is a real 'nail that sticks out gets hammered down' syndrome. I wrote a letter to the police complaining about the way that 16 year old girl was treated when she was arrested. I couldn't get any of the autistic people i know IRL to sign it. They all said it was pointless or they didn't want to be on a police list of trouble makers.
This mentality amoung autistic people of going through their lives hideing ... I'm sick of it.