Experiences of Crisis Teams?

I really feel in crisis for quite a bit of the time these days.  However, asking for help for myself and being open and honest about our situation also brings with it the worrying possibility of unwanted "help" from services untrained in autism.

I'm thinking about the Crisis Team in particular, with which we've had some very disappointing and damaging experiences.  

Is there anything to ask or be aware of that might enable us to actually get something useful from them?  Any special autism-friendly service?

Otherwise what on earth do families do when they're in crisis but know this team cannot help?

Parents
  • Crisis team are useless, Your better off contacting your local authority for a needs assessment and a healthcare plan being made which will provide you access to support worker and specialised services and advocate on your behalf to get the right help.

    Alternatively you could contact your local autism partnership or autism charity and see if they are able to provide emergency therapy, advocacy or support.   

Reply
  • Crisis team are useless, Your better off contacting your local authority for a needs assessment and a healthcare plan being made which will provide you access to support worker and specialised services and advocate on your behalf to get the right help.

    Alternatively you could contact your local autism partnership or autism charity and see if they are able to provide emergency therapy, advocacy or support.   

Children
  • Yes.  For us they've proved to be worse than useless in that some of their interventions were actually damaging.  

    I'm tempted, and have been for some time, to ask for a needs assessment, but there again I'd have to be very careful about what I revealed because I could easily bounce the whole family into a very much feared and unwanted "intervention" from social services.  And, at my carers' group, it seems the focus is on respite and various activities I don't want (I know how to look after myself and sort out my own self care) rather than the autism-friendly advice and guidance for family matters that impinge on every family member - quite badly and in numerous ways with which anyone would have difficulty coping.  

  • Problem I have is that need for an advocate is recognised, but no one will give me one. If I do get one the GP won't make it possible to see me with one because the only route past the receptionist to make an appointment is to ring at 8 - an advocate can't be on stand by all day just for me. And yet it's the GP who says I need one. I've needed a GP appointment for over a year and can't get one with an advocate present.

    Upshot, I cannot access any health care at all. My only contact with them is by letter, and it takes months to get a one line reply.