Aspies For Freedom

What I'm wondering: do they look  at the medical  records of a person before they admit them into the facility? My medical records say things like "Asperger's Syndrome" and "Autism". I  *don't* want to spend my last years in some place where almost noone can hole an intelligent conversation or play a game of chess with me, and where I'd be treated as if ***.

LFAs born long enough ago to be in old people's homes now were probably put into psychiactric institutions, or institutions for the ***, and I geuss they're probably still there.
I don't know about aspies, as I think in old age they might be harder to distinguish as old people tend to be "set in their ways", so tend to like routines which is an aspie thing.

Hey guys less of the word ***, it is offensive and quite frankly hypocritical.  I have (as has my sister) been called a *** again and again as kids.  Sorry to be politically correct.  The official term is Learning disability, I know many people with learning disabilities who prefer to use the term learning difficulty.  

People with learning difficulties are usually under the Learning disabilities team in supported living or residential care.  Old people without general learning disability come under the older person's team's and live in supported living, sheltered accommodation or resenditial homes.  

Down's sydrome have a slightly shorter life expectancy, but that is also increasing now just as it is in the 'normal' population.  

I am sure there are many 'autistic' old folk, look for the ones for memories like an elephant!  and also think about those who are suffering from the early stages of dementia.  There is something similiar in the brains of autistic people and those in the early stages of dementia.  Don't ask where I heard that and don't take it as fact.

I will also tell you, among learning disabled adults with challenging behaviour, there are a lot of noticable autistic traits (talking about ambient adults).  

Many people I have supported never had a proper diagnosis of any sort.  

The older generation of LFA were diagnosed and are often in care.  I support one guy he is 37 years old.

In the UK, many were taken out of institutions and into the community during the late 80's/90's.  Now a days many will be in supported living situations or residential homes, it depends on the behaviour, more challenging adults with LFA will have some of the highest care needs and will more than likely be in units that suit that need, semi or secure units, some specialist for Autism.

The term mentally *** is out dated, at least in the UK, as like I said it is offensive.  I believe it originates from the french word for late?  I went on a training course about learning disabilities and termonologies have changed a lot over the years.

I think there may be a problem here with the terms learning disability, learning difficulty and mental retardation because some of the posters are from the US and some from the UK.
Here: in the UK learning disablity is defined as IQ 70 or below.
Learning difficulty covers things such as dyslexia
Mental retardation is not a term we use any longer.
I believe that in the US learning disability covers the dyslexia etc catagory, and they still use the term mental retardation for IQ 70 or less. (any US posters will know more than I do about that).

I used to work in adult services with adults : autism, cerebral palsy, downs sydrome etc all of whom had a learning disability, when they became elderly the expectation was that they would be assessed and may go to a regular care / nursing home or one that specialised in Learning disability, it was done on a case by case basis and the main thing considered appeared to be "challenging behaviour".

They live in group homes for the disabled elderly. That’s how my little town did it when I lived in Montana. Once in a while I see them go out and they be out somewhere having fun like the time I was at the bowling alley with my family and bunch of these old people showed up and I noticed they were acting differently. Dad told me some of them were ***. There were young people there too with them. I’ve also been to group homes for the elderly when I was in high school with my choir class when we were signing Christmas carols. Some of them had Alzheimer’s so they had regressed to a young child. I hope I end up ina  normal nursing home. I'd hate to be an outcast once again.

I don't think anybody here is meaning to be offensive. Remember we're Aspies and we know what it's like to be excluded and picked on; and a lot of us have friends with MR or at least have met people with it. I know I have... but maybe being an Aspie is good for that, because I don't really notice much is different until a few minutes into the conversation. Prevents me from forming any stupid prejudicial ideas about the person on first seeing them, because I'm too oblivious to notice anything's different right away!... though I think I do kind of act different, because I'm worried they won't understand my big words, and I feel like I have to censor everything I say. And then I worry that I'm talking down to them and embarassing them...

Maybe somebody who's got a good friend with MR might ask them what term they'd rather have us use? It'd be about the best way to get an answer, with all the crazy political correctness.

Anyway, countries' terminology for low IQ is different. Here in the USA, we often use "developmental delay", or "mental retardation"; the second one is falling out of favor with non-medical people because it's too much like "***", but it's the term used by most professionals (and the one I use because my mom's an occupational therapist, and it's the one she uses). Some of the most politically correct use "mentally challenged", but that last one is swiftly turning into an insult--I guess people find insulting somebody by using the most polite term for MR to be ironic enough to sound really smart-alecky, or something.

I don't think we really need to worry about terms, just so long as nobody means it in an insulting manner. And really, it's pretty obvious when someone means to insult somebody. There's a difference between referring to somebody with Down's and the resulting difficulties as "***", and referring to somebody who just posted an opinion you don't like as "***".

Not that I have much to say about it, because I'm not in the group being referred to, but I don't think "***" is such a horrible word to use. All it really means is "slowed down"... somebody who does things at their own pace, takes a little longer but gets there eventually. Seems like about the right description to me, really. If you take away all the connotations people have stuck onto it, it sounds kind of dignified.

Hm, as regards autism/aspergers, I never use the term "aspie" of myself, always "autie", when speaking of such things, probably because people are more likely to know what it means, and IMO, it sounds better

AWSOME! I never met an elder aspie or autistic person before> I have only met people who are younger, my age, or middle aged, then it just stops. So nice to meet you FreWye!!!

And i also never met an elder capable of using the internet, congradulations :p

Sorry I didnt mean to be offensive or anything.

Im currantly trying to teach my grandma how to turn the computer on, i think we have taken two steps back (I once tried to teach her how to play netendo, and yeah....)

Yes, I think I am like that and can usually tell if people like me or not.

Alzheimer's is caused by the body producing amyloid proteins of a different sort than normal, which grow into "plaques", killing off neurons and basically filling the brain matter itself with crap, its a physical, not neurological disorder (and I am not calling AS a disorder here) so the two, AFAIK, don't share any relation at all.

Hope it never comes to that...I believe most elderly people would never have been diagnosed with AS. If borderline, they probably managed to "pass" as "normal" though perhaps a little eccentric. If worse, they sadly are likely to have had at least some involvement with the Mental Health system (often an oxymoron) or even the prison system. Some would be cared for by family.