Introduce yourself (part one)

I am the mother of a son who is 21 years of age and who was diagnosed with 'High Functioning Autism' when he was 9 yrs old.  Having that label helped quite a lot until he left college nearly two years ago.  Now it is just one long hard fight trying to find help for him.

In the last two years I've tried Social Services, - that was a complete waste of time because after a year I was informed that "he wasn't at risk."  No of course he wasn't because he has me!  Obviously, there is no risk to a person who is up all night and sleeps all day and is unable to initiate or sustain personal action; who has no social life and who is just being left to rot behind closed doors...  It begs the question: what was the point of him passing five GCSEs and completing three years of college for a BTEC Level 3 in Business Studies?

I'm afraid it just gets harder once a person hits that magic age (18).  We now also have the difficult task to trying to pass the ESA test and the DLA questionnaires.  In saying that, I was successful in managing to get LRM and LRC for my son for an indefinite period just recently but I had to appeal their decision when they took away his LRM and MRC in November, 2010.  As for ESA, in June 2010, at the Appeal Tribunal, my son was placed in the support group (given 34 points) but two weeks later he had to attend another ESA medical and was placed in the Work Related Group.  We have decided to appeal this decision because this whole ESA business is just a nonsense!

I know many people are experiencing the same difficulties and it can be so hard to keep trying.  I'm feeling ok at the moment but sometimes I have wept because of the sheer drudgery of it all.

I am the mother of a son who is 21 years of age and who was diagnosed with 'High Functioning Autism' when he was 9 yrs old.  Having that label helped quite a lot until he left college nearly two years ago.  Now it is just one long hard fight trying to find help for him.

In the last two years I've tried Social Services, - that was a complete waste of time because after a year I was informed that "he wasn't at risk."  No of course he wasn't because he has me!  Obviously, there is no risk to a person who is up all night and sleeps all day and is unable to initiate or sustain personal action; who has no social life and who is just being left to rot behind closed doors...  It begs the question: what was the point of him passing five GCSEs and completing three years of college for a BTEC Level 3 in Business Studies?

I'm afraid it just gets harder once a person hits that magic age (18).  We now also have the difficult task to trying to pass the ESA test and the DLA questionnaires.  In saying that, I was successful in managing to get LRM and LRC for my son for an indefinite period just recently but I had to appeal their decision when they took away his LRM and MRC in November, 2010.  As for ESA, in June 2010, at the Appeal Tribunal, my son was placed in the support group (given 34 points) but two weeks later he had to attend another ESA medical and was placed in the Work Related Group.  We have decided to appeal this decision because this whole ESA business is just a nonsense!

I know many people are experiencing the same difficulties and it can be so hard to keep trying.  I'm feeling ok at the moment but sometimes I have wept because of the sheer drudgery of it all.