Hi all, my son is 14 and has severe autism, non verbal with added behaviour problems. I am seriously considering asking the (rubbish) social worker about residentail care as im completely broken and just cant do it anymore, i have 2 younger children ages 7 and 10 and my other half who also suffers with bipolar and i just dont cope at all anymore, my son gets 4 night respite every 3 weeks due to his behaviour and i seem to spend my life counting the days for every stay, its not life for me or my other kids as we cant go out, do fun things as my son wont go out. He absolutly loves going to respite and hates coming home, its like a kick in the guts every time. I have no friends and just my mother who seems to think its easy and when i mentioned him going in a care home she says im abandoing him and i *dont want him, just going to throw him away* so as you can see i dont get much support. Does anyone have experience of doing this? do i even have a chance of doing it before hes 16 ( they have told me once hes 16 they can begin his case for it) the thought of another 2 years is making me more depressed then i already am. Any advice is much apreciated x