05-03-2008, 09:34 AM
Copied and pasted from Bill Goodyear's website:
http://www.billgoodyear.org/newspage.php...0&pageID=2
Petition for people with Asperger's syndrome
To ensure that a dedicated and specific national budget for the support of people with Asperger’s syndrome is created at national level
I have started a petition to the Prime Minister to ask that he finds a way to create a budget for people with developmental disorders, prime amongst which are those with Asperger’s syndrome.
You can sign it at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/aspergerbudget/
(Please pass it on to anyone you know who may be interested!)
People with Asperger’s are not supported by dedicated Government budgets, unlike other groups of people. The only community care budgets that might provide support are dedicated to learning difficulties and mental health. The criteria for eligibility for any of these services are stringently applied and over stretched, thus generally excluding the Asperger’s population.
Government intention is that for people with social care needs, ‘the needs of adults are reflected in the full range of statutory services’. Central government delegates this responsibility to local government, and the 2001 white paper (Valuing People: a new strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century) states that although people with Asperger’s syndrome are excluded from the learning disability group ‘clear local protocols should be in place for collaboration between specialist learning disability services and specialist mental health services’, in order to ‘allow opportunities and services for people with autism and learning disabilities to continue to improve’.
I am also told that the Government ‘is committed to ensuring that people have access to the support services they need. The current position whereby some people with an autistic spectrum disorder can ‘fall though’ local services, particularly between mental health and learning disability services, is unacceptable.’
The law (community care, human rights, disability legislation), demands that people are supported in leading as independent a life as possible and not disadvantaged because of their particular conditions. It is manifestly obvious that this is not happening in this population. A recent report, for instance, describing research amongst people with Asperger’s, found that nearly 90% were not offered enough support after having been diagnosed.
Very few services exist for this group, and those that do are usually expensive and extreme, specifically designed for those who are most strongly affected by Asperger’s syndrome. We can assume that those in the most need are a minority, and that the majority have a lower level of need: these people are probably capable of an independent life and yet still need very specific support to enable them maximise their potential.
However, this is not happening, and common anecdotal knowledge confirms that individual families still wait for years whilst their sons and daughters accustom themselves to the emptiness of adult life with no role and no support – a very damaging process which ultimately often drives people to the point where they do finally meet the criteria for eligibility to mental health services.
In my opinion, this situation will not change until a budget provision is made specifically for people with developmental disorders. However, as we are talking about a population somewhere close to the size of the city of Cardiff, I realise this is a considerable demand.
I have been in the autism field since 1980, and there is a startling similarity with the experience of parents now to that which I was introduced to back then – although things are improving for people with autism, with more service provision and awareness for the entire ASD field, there is not much evidence that things are getting better for people with Asperger’s.
Access to services and funding is still prevented by:
* Learning disability and mental health professionals refusing to take responsibility
* Diagnoses that are wrong, confusing, late or not made
* Service being inappropriate for individual needs
* Budgets being too tight to allow for an appropriate service
* Lack of understanding/knowledge amongst professionals at all levels
* Absence of appropriate services
It seems to me that there is an impasse around many people with Asperger’s in which they are not offered any worthwhile service or support until and unless they fall into depression and mental ill health because their lives fail to work out. So I am floating this petition to gather support for the creation of a dedicated government budget for people with developmental disorders in the belief that when money is available to offer the support that is needed, innovation in service design will follow and people will begin to wonder what can be done to support people with Asperger’s.
If you feel that this is a worthwhile cause to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention, please sign this now at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/aspergerbudget/
http://www.billgoodyear.org/newspage.php...0&pageID=2
Petition for people with Asperger's syndrome
To ensure that a dedicated and specific national budget for the support of people with Asperger’s syndrome is created at national level
I have started a petition to the Prime Minister to ask that he finds a way to create a budget for people with developmental disorders, prime amongst which are those with Asperger’s syndrome.
You can sign it at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/aspergerbudget/
(Please pass it on to anyone you know who may be interested!)
People with Asperger’s are not supported by dedicated Government budgets, unlike other groups of people. The only community care budgets that might provide support are dedicated to learning difficulties and mental health. The criteria for eligibility for any of these services are stringently applied and over stretched, thus generally excluding the Asperger’s population.
Government intention is that for people with social care needs, ‘the needs of adults are reflected in the full range of statutory services’. Central government delegates this responsibility to local government, and the 2001 white paper (Valuing People: a new strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century) states that although people with Asperger’s syndrome are excluded from the learning disability group ‘clear local protocols should be in place for collaboration between specialist learning disability services and specialist mental health services’, in order to ‘allow opportunities and services for people with autism and learning disabilities to continue to improve’.
I am also told that the Government ‘is committed to ensuring that people have access to the support services they need. The current position whereby some people with an autistic spectrum disorder can ‘fall though’ local services, particularly between mental health and learning disability services, is unacceptable.’
The law (community care, human rights, disability legislation), demands that people are supported in leading as independent a life as possible and not disadvantaged because of their particular conditions. It is manifestly obvious that this is not happening in this population. A recent report, for instance, describing research amongst people with Asperger’s, found that nearly 90% were not offered enough support after having been diagnosed.
Very few services exist for this group, and those that do are usually expensive and extreme, specifically designed for those who are most strongly affected by Asperger’s syndrome. We can assume that those in the most need are a minority, and that the majority have a lower level of need: these people are probably capable of an independent life and yet still need very specific support to enable them maximise their potential.
However, this is not happening, and common anecdotal knowledge confirms that individual families still wait for years whilst their sons and daughters accustom themselves to the emptiness of adult life with no role and no support – a very damaging process which ultimately often drives people to the point where they do finally meet the criteria for eligibility to mental health services.
In my opinion, this situation will not change until a budget provision is made specifically for people with developmental disorders. However, as we are talking about a population somewhere close to the size of the city of Cardiff, I realise this is a considerable demand.
I have been in the autism field since 1980, and there is a startling similarity with the experience of parents now to that which I was introduced to back then – although things are improving for people with autism, with more service provision and awareness for the entire ASD field, there is not much evidence that things are getting better for people with Asperger’s.
Access to services and funding is still prevented by:
* Learning disability and mental health professionals refusing to take responsibility
* Diagnoses that are wrong, confusing, late or not made
* Service being inappropriate for individual needs
* Budgets being too tight to allow for an appropriate service
* Lack of understanding/knowledge amongst professionals at all levels
* Absence of appropriate services
It seems to me that there is an impasse around many people with Asperger’s in which they are not offered any worthwhile service or support until and unless they fall into depression and mental ill health because their lives fail to work out. So I am floating this petition to gather support for the creation of a dedicated government budget for people with developmental disorders in the belief that when money is available to offer the support that is needed, innovation in service design will follow and people will begin to wonder what can be done to support people with Asperger’s.
If you feel that this is a worthwhile cause to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention, please sign this now at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/aspergerbudget/