My name is Josie and my partner and i have a son aged 6 and a daughter aged 3. Our son is autistic which is something we have know since he was 3 but he has only just been officially diagnosed with it last month!
As most of you will know a child with autism ideally need their own bedroom and access to a garden is a real blessing unfortunately we live in a two bed flat on the 2nd floor, our children have to share a bedroom and we have no garden, and everyday is a battle with my sons behaviour, we manage the best we can in our situation but my son loves the outdoors its one thing that really calms when he is feel agitated, stressed and generally overwhelmed so we take him out out as much as possible, but sometimes this can be stressful for him if its busy, noisy or to hot or too cold. and when this happens the strange and sometime violent behaviour sets in and people will akes remarks or just stare! which for us is upsetting.
W have been trying to get moved in to a house so my son can have his own quiet space which would be his bedroom and have access to our own garden which will act as his escape from the rest of the world, we have asked our council for help, but despite help from our MP, the diagnoses from the hospital/GP and the Autistic society themselves, Winchester City council do not think we have hight enough priority to be rehoused into more suitable accomodation!
We have been fighting for the lasst 2 years for some help and every time we would see a glimmer of hope it just gets snatched away from us.
So i am here to ask anyone if they have faced the same troubles as us and if anyone can provide us with a group or organisation that can help us further? i cant stress enough how important this is to our family, not only for my son but for my daughter too, as she unfortunatly bares the brunt of my sons condition, she loves her brother and they do have a good relationship and can play beautifully together but most of the time his behaviour is confusing to her especially when he gets aggressive toward her for no apparent reason.
We have had great support with my sons educational needs and he is doing really well in a mainsteam school and he is a very popular boy and has lots of friends, beacuse i believe the teachers are doing a fantastic job in getting the other children to understand harry's autism, although u get a few that will try and test harry and will get him to do things that they know is wrong but harry doesnt see this.
We just feel that if we an get house into suitable housing then all of our lives will be all the better for it.
Please please help us if you can?
Many thanks guys xx
