“Art of Autism” Blogger Awards 2017

by Planet Autism Blog08/01/2017

If anyone has ever appreciated any of my blog posts please consider voting for me here: http://the-art-of-autism.com/vote-for-your-favorite-female-autistic-blogger-for-2017/. I’ve never been nominated for a bloggers award before!

I never really check blog follows statistics, but I know there are a few of you out there. So if any of my posts have struck a chord with you, given you a helpful insight, been a topic for debate, or anything at all – I would appreciate your vote.

Some of my most popular blog posts have been:

But there is a wide variety on the blog, some of which have been topics I have never seen discussed elsewhere.

I’m normally very behind-the-scenes and ‘hide my light under a bushel’ and therefore my blog is (as far as I am aware), not one of the high profile ones, so I thought I’d break the habit and suggest nominating and voting for me as I’m currently in need of a boost! It will hopefully also spread awareness of autistic issues from perspectives that may not be found elsewhere and if that helps even one person, it will be worth your vote.

Many thanks!

“Autism Assessments – Lay Parents vs Clinicians!”

by Planet Autism Blog29/09/201629/09/2016

hello-i-am-an-expert Most people are expert at something – even if it’s something negative! Autism diagnosticians such as psychologists and psychiatrists, are, purportedly, the experts in assessing and diagnosing children for autism.

So those clinicians, are the ‘expert’ assessors in making decisions on your child either having, or not having autism. This is a person (along with colleagues), who most likely has never met the child before. The child will be in an unnatural clinic environment and with one or more strangers, so naturally will likely not behave in their usual, natural way (the older the child the more likely this is) and may actually be inhibited through anxiety. The diagnostician will information gather as part of the assessment process, from parents, school (nursery/playgroup/college etc.) and they really merit information that is deemed a ‘professional’ source.

Parents, the Government tell us, are experts in our own children. Yet all too often, parental evidence taken during an NHS assessment, is seen as inferior to school or other professional advice on the child. All children behave differently between school and home (and this can be an extremely marked difference in autistics), autistic children can mask a huge amount in school and there is so much autism ignorance among school staff anyway, why should they be relied upon to any degree and certainly not more heavily weighted than parental advice. What’s the preciousness about ‘professionals’? I mean think about it – a teacher in charge of a class of 30+ children, who sees an unnatural presentation of the child in an artificial setting that is focused on following ongoing instruction – or the parent who birthed that child, knew them all their life in multiple different settings and sees the best and worst of them while they are unmasked – who is more likely to have the more accurate evidence to provide!

novice-expert

The questionnaires (‘clinical tools’) diagnosticians use are standard, often they have the scoring key on the form (and when they don’t, these are easily obtained) and the rest is common sense, analysing traits, behaviours and difficulties from and in, a real life context. Anyone with half a brain can information gather. It’s just looking for a pattern of evidence, and knowing what to look for in the beginning. It doesn’t take years of training as a medical professional or psychologist to do this. The sad thing is, many of these so-called highly qualified people, are so clueless about autism much of the time (they don’t have to have specific autism expertise as a psychologist or psychiatrist to diagnose – basic ADOS administration training seems to be considered by CAMHS to be all they need), that this is why they over-rely on the clinical tools and sometimes ignore or minimise vital parental evidence. You can almost see the fear of diagnosing in their eyes.

And of course all the while they disrespect parents as people seeking diagnoses for the sake of claiming benefits, they will continue to overlook parental evidence. A little bit of respect here please!

What with the agenda not to diagnose in the first place, meaning they may attempt to derail the cause of the autism traits onto something else, such as anxiety or OCD, is it any surprise some autistic children are remaining undiagnosed. These conditions may be co-morbid to the autism, but there can be a deliberate avoidance of looking at the underlying condition that causes the co-morbidities.

An assessor does need to understand other conditions that could have some superficially similar traits as autism, hence a proper assessment should be differential. They would say that this is why it takes a qualified clinician, but there are also assessment tools for those conditions too and a little bit of the right questioning would tease out reasons behind certain behaviours, to know what they were attributable to. Autism is after all diagnosed as a syndrome of behaviours, it’s an entirely clinical diagnosis – meaning if you have the triad of impairments you are autistic (or as they say ‘meet diagnostic criteria’ or ‘meet clinical threshold’), so there is no reason why a lay person who has done a bit of reading and has the right insights, could not in theory be accurate in diagnosing. Some of the clinicians I have come across are so inept and so reliant on questionnaires, seemingly fearful of deviating from them and unable to give credence to parental information, that it wouldn’t be hard to do better.

Of course, they are also looking for other types of alternative cause for the traits, such as attachment disorder, trauma, or something amiss in the home environment. Whilst they do need to do this for an fully considered assessment, the parent blame culture ensures these avenues are pursued with far more regularity than they should be. It’s another stumbling block to diagnosis.

expert-knowledge

“An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research, experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study.”

Therefore, who better to know and identify the reason for the child’s difficulties – it is the child who is being assessed after all, not autism as a concept – than their expert parent. Of course this couldn’t be said for everyone, not all parents would have the ability to do the right reading, express their child’s difficulties in accordance with the concept or context of a condition, especially if it included analysing potential alternatives. But a fair whack of parents with reasonable intelligence and some research skills and insightful, analytical approach, could do as good a job of assessing their child (or someone else’s!) for autism as a clinician (and in some cases better). You can also pay to go on ADOS courses. Of course it will never be, that parents will be empowered with diagnosing their children, or that any such diagnosis would be accepted. Potential bias/ethical considerations, ulterior motives in a few bad eggs and all sorts of other reasons exist for that. But the point being made is, that parents are usually the first to recognise their child’s difficulties and ‘experts’ need to take that gold dust on board, value it and respect it.

The NHS has to stop misdiagnosing, failing to diagnose and making such a meal out of assessing children for autism. Why are there such ridiculously long waiting lists? NHS NICE states that children should be assessed within 3 months of referral! Trust what the parents are telling you, utilise their expertise and respect them. Realise that telling a parent “autistic traits but not enough for a diagnosis” is failing that child and their family. They will walk out of there without any support, unless they happen to have co-morbid mental health conditions which they are treated for. But any such treatment may be useless and even harmful, if their autistic neurology is not taken into account. And if you do fail that child, their already compromised outcomes may become dire. Get your autism act together NHS clinicians, or you might just find an army of parents at your doors, who can do a better job at it than you!

“Male Ego and Autistic Progeny”

by Planet Autism Blog11/09/201611/09/2016

male-ego Ego is a funny thing. It makes people proud and vain at one end of the scale or insecure and paranoid at the other. It isn’t therefore, necessarily a good thing to possess. But most people have one, unless they have learned to master it and let such burdens go. The male ego is something that is famously guarded, it’s something females are not supposed to dent. A man must not feel his “masculinity” is under question. Machismo, manliness, masculinity…no matter how well hidden it is, in a metro man, a nerd or a hippy, they all have male pride…an ego.

When a man becomes a father, he often seems to see the progeny as a reflection of himself. The participation of his seed in the process seems to take on a role larger than it played in reality. It’s almost a primal thing. He of course only contributed 50% of the genes and therefore characteristics, to that child, but the ego seems to be slightly blinded to that and if something goes awry, many men take it as a personal fault against their self. This is probably more so in the case of an invisible disability, which is not apparent in the baby, lulling the father into a false sense of security for a while, only to be told later their child is disabled, is autistic.

Many dads of autistic children brush away the worried mum’s initial voicing of concerns, sometimes this leads to disagreement about whether to have the child assessed for autism. Stories abound on community forums by such mothers, here is a sample:

Media articles and blog posts too:

Let me tell you what that type of ego-driven denial can do to a child and the family.

Mothers usually know their children intimately. OK dads usually know their children well, but unless they have become the stay-at-home primary caregiver, they don’t know the child like the mother does. Mother’s instinct is a very strong thing. Mothers spent nine months growing that baby in their body, feeling it move, nourishing it, being joined to it by a cord. They often are the ones to feed the baby, sometimes from their own body. They learn every habit, nuance, whim and personality trait of that child. They take the child to playgroups and other places where mothers (who notoriously compare their child to the children of peers) congregate, so they pick up a lot. Of course, if a child is severely autistic it will be blatantly obvious from early on.

So, when you have a dad dismissing mum’s concerns, telling her it’s all in her head, she often will believe it, especially if it’s a first child. She will question herself, tell herself she’s worrying too much. And if the dad is unsupportive and attributes the behaviours to the mother’s parenting-style, she will often believe that too. Especially if she has spoken to any professional about her concerns as the initial reaction is to fob parents off on parenting courses to avoid conducting assessments. He will cause self-doubt and insecurity in the mother. He’s worried about his child being stigmatised and the disability being a reflection on himself. So mum won’t take the child to the doctor for an autism referral, the child won’t be diagnosed and won’t get support.

You then have a situation, where mum is dealing with often very challenging behaviour and nobody believes her that something is up. This may cause tension and arguments between mum and dad too, mum may be struggling with the majority of the child’s difficulties alone a lot of the time. Even if mum takes the child to the doctor, if dad-in-denial is there, he will, with that ego of his driving his fear and denial, feel compelled to say that he hasn’t noticed anything wrong, hint that he thinks mum is worrying too much. And of course, with age-old stereotypes still abounding in society, mum will be viewed as a worry-wort, a bit neurotic and if it’s a first child, inexperienced and needlessly panicking.

So mum may resort to internet research to help confirm or deny her fears. The pet hate of the vast majority of doctors is internet research. No matter how bone fide the source, many will dismiss it, because mothers couldn’t possibly know more than the doctors. Only they usually do when it comes to autism: “Parental Recognition of Autism – Professionals Must Listen!”

Mother Research

Bearing in mind the incompetence of seemingly the majority of CAMHS, who are only too happy to fob families off with “not enough traits for a diagnosis” and the parent blame culture that is rife, with one parent unsupportive the child is almost destined not to be diagnosed, unless their autism is blatantly obvious. Because all too many doctors say “we don’t want to label the child do we”, what with them guarding resources tightly, we know the real reason they don’t want to.

What does lack of diagnosis do to a child? They exist in a world of social confusion, struggling with friendships and not knowing why. They likely have sensory issues and find the world a painful place, wondering why life is so difficult. They become overwhelmed and meltdown, often feeling ashamed afterwards – because that’s the thing, “high-functioning” autistics are usually painfully aware of their differences. They may stim and feel ashamed and compelled to hide it, because they’ve noticed other people don’t do it. They are likely to think themselves weird and wonder why they don’t fit in or feel like other people. They are likely have additional conditions (ADHD is co-morbid in around 43% of autistics and OCD is often in-built) placing additional pressures on them. They are likely to go on to develop mental health issues such as anxiety and depression from finding things so difficult. Mainstream school is very hard for most autistics and impossible for some. But without a diagnosis that’s where they will be. Figures of over 80% have been cited for autistics being bullied – other children seem to home in on someone who is different and target them. They will lack understanding of themselves, by secondary school things are likely to start falling apart if they haven’t before. By then, mental health conditions probably more ingrained due to struggling with an undiagnosed primary condition for so long.

The parents will be seeking out mental health support for their child once things start falling apart, by that point it may be inevitable that a diagnosis follows, but what a tragic and unfair way to reach that point. And if the child reaches adulthood without a diagnosis, by the time they do (hopefully) obtain one, they may well become very bitter towards their parents for not having them diagnosed sooner. I have read of some autistic adults estranging themselves from their parents as they were so angry at what felt like a betrayal, for them choosing not to get them assessed and diagnosed and leaving them to live through the above difficulties all that time, without understanding or support. Most autistic adults are relieved to finally have answers for their difficulties, they know their difficulties are not their fault and they are freed by the knowledge. So who is any parent to deny their child that right?

The other thing of course, is that if dad is denying the difficulties and brushing them off to other reasons, the child will feel misunderstood and even disbelieved. For instance, some dads believe a meltdown is the child being naughty and will treat it as such. If a child school-refuses, they may blame mum for not being firm enough. This will likely end up being the cause of a less than close relationship between father and child.

Ostrich

So any fathers out there, who are being told by the mother of their child that they believe they need assessing for autism, listen. What have you got to lose? If the child is not autistic they won’t be diagnosed. If they are, you will be enabling them to access the support they need. The diagnosis only needs to be disclosed on a need-to-know basis. If the child’s difficulties are that obvious people will have noticed already anyway. No matter what any official tells you, support usually is diagnosis-based not needs-based, no matter what it says in any policies and if your child has a high enough IQ to manage well enough academically, professionals won’t care about the other difficulties – so that means you must. And you want your child to have the right support. The earlier the intervention the better for their longer-term outcomes. You owe that to your child. After all, this is not about you, it’s not a choice, it’s a necessity.

“Anosognosia and Autism – A Real Concern”

by Planet Autism Blog05/09/201605/09/2016

Image courtesy of http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org

Most strictly speaking, anosognosia is the individual’s ongoing lack of awareness of or insight into, a medically diagnosed condition they have, due to damage to the brain, a variety of anatomical structures are involved, especially the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, medial frontal cortex, and inferior parietal cortex. It is insufficient to simply be in psychological denial, for it to be termed anosognosia, but anosognosia is present in people with not only neurological injury e.g. from an accident, but also in people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This means, that the brain differences in those conditions, are damage to the normal functioning of the brain. Sometimes, the term anosognosia is used to describe denial of the diagnosis too. I think this should be the case when the level of denial is so absolute, that the individual cannot move past it.

There is however, a dearth of literature on anosognosia in autistics. Autism is genetically related to schizophrenia (as well as bipolar) and some autistics have co-morbid schizophrenia. So it stands to reason the the brain differences in autistics can be such, that they could also cause, or contribute, to anosognosia about their autism. Some autistics may simply deny their condition because they are newly diagnosed adolescents who are embarrassed about being seen as different than peers, or a late diagnosed adult who is struggling with the shock of re-evaluating their whole life through a new lens, or the individual may have co-morbid anxiety which makes them too scared to deal with it. That’s not actual anosognosia though, time usually resolves this reaction.

Autistics can, not uncommonly, suffer with alexithymia, the difficulty in recognising emotions and the reasons for them. I believe this can contribute to anosognosia. My eldest autistic child seems to have true anosognosia. Since being diagnosed with autism over 2½ years ago, she has steadfastly refused to accept her diagnosis. And I tried selling all the positives, pointing out celebrities and historical figures known to be, or believed to have been, autistic and talking about the talents and abilities it conferred on her. She was diagnosed late, at age 12, due to professional failures in recognising high-functioning female autistic presentation, but that’s a whole other story. I thought it was fear and being an adolescent that made her refuse to believe it. But over time, I have come to realise that it’s more than that. When she was assessed, she completed self-report questionnaires and selected all the answers that highlighted her as having no problems whatsoever, for personal traits and difficulties. Everything she was struggling with in school and elsewhere, she attributed to being the fault of others.

She struggled socially, but that was because everyone was “mean”, not because she was emotionally and developmentally behind her peers and couldn’t converse about the same things they did, or because she struggled with reciprocal conversation. When the teacher’s voice was too loud for her, it was the teacher “booming”, not because she had sensory issues. She described herself as very helpful, when for example, she has sat many a time, watching me struggling back and forth past her loaded with heavy shopping bags and never once offered to help. When she wet herself several times in school, it was because she was laughing too much, not because she was so anxious and overwhelmed that she was unable to listen to her body and recognise that she had a full bladder in the first place, or had difficulty speaking up. When she is constantly unable to manage basic daily minutiae without asking for guidance, it’s because I’ve brought her up to be helpless. It’s very hard parenting a child who thinks this way.

Even her school, who were trying to deny there were any problems, whilst she was suffering an emotional breakdown failing to cope there, scored her as having difficulties in various areas that she didn’t admit to. She couldn’t cope with the demands at secondary level, the adult content of the lessons – which was shocking and traumatic, to her developmentally delayed brain – it was like dumping a little 8 year old in high school and expecting them to cope. She would come home from school and download at length, a monologue of her daily school stresses, pacing in a circle, followed by breaking down sobbing and having meltdowns, where she would bang her head repeatedly on the floor and pick her skin until it bled – but that was because the school was “horrible” and people were “mean”. Her inability to cope in school and the effect it had on her, resulted her being diagnosed with co-morbid anxiety and depression. She changed schools, but the same thing happened, so she clearly couldn’t cope in mainstream and then school-refused, she has been off now for 18 months. Yet she is a very intelligent child, academically excellent with a very superior vocabulary.

So over time, I realised that her denial, is beyond being mere denial. It’s a literal belief that she really isn’t autistic, an inability to believe it. Never mind that she has an autistic sibling and parent, so genetically there is something going on, it still couldn’t possibly be her. I thought time would make her come to terms with it, but it hasn’t. If any support offered has been autism-related, she refused it. She has refused social opportunities that would help expand her horizons, yet is upset at having no social life. As I see signs of alexithymia and very low empathy in her, I believe there is a part of her brain that doesn’t see herself as she really is. She is confident in some ways, but has a poor-self image at times and will tell me she’s “weird” or “a freak”, which to me are far worse terms than ‘autistic’. She misunderstands people a lot, she thinks people have been mean all the time. She externalises her difficulties to such a fervent degree, that the only conclusion is anosognosia.

But this worries me. Quite a lot. Her social misunderstanding, naivety and vulnerability mean she does not have the ability to be as independent in the way she imagines she should be. Her life dreams revolve around fictitious cartoon characters, that ‘autistic living in a fantasy world‘ described by Tony Attwood. Questions she has asked me, such as why a man would want to abduct a child, coupled with her inability to cope with learning “bad stuff” that would allow her to understand why, means she is stuck in a no-man’s-land of semi-reality. Her inability to cope when unexpected problems arise, to overreact to phobias she has when outside, her hyper-reactivity and general tendency to panic, all leave her vulnerable. She flatly denies particular difficulties she has and will only admit to something if she believes it isn’t related to autism (she doesn’t know difficulty speaking up and asking for help is a trait common in autism so she’ll admit to that!). She has an EHCP because of her difficulties, but asks why she should have one when the other children don’t.

At the age she is now, she will all-too-soon, be considered to have rights, independence and responsibilities that would only be denied/managed on her behalf, if she was deemed to lack capacity. Because of her high IQ, she would likely to be considered to have capacity, because she would be able to intellectually answer questions that would make it appear so. And her superior vocabulary, alongside her serious and passive manner with strangers, makes her seem mature, but they can’t see what’s going on inside. They wouldn’t realise that her understanding of consequences, potential scenarios, awareness of an adequate range of manifestation of danger, lag far behind. She knows you aren’t supposed to talk to strangers, but she isn’t street-wise, she misunderstands people, she’s innocent and gullible, she panics at the unexpected. Many autistics can answer questions about dangers and risks based on logic, but there is a mismatch between that logic and an ability to be able to apply it in real life, in real-time. High-functioning autistic females can also be masters of camouflage and masking. And parents are elbowed out of the picture sharpish when children reach a certain age. She has actually said to me that as soon as she is an adult she will have herself “undiagnosed”. So what happens when a child refuses to accept their difficulties, denies there is any problem and makes a superficially convincing show of it? What happens when a parent knows that this puts them in a really vulnerable and potentially at risk position? Professionals will put the rights of the child above the parent’s knowledge of their child and ignore the parent – especially when it conveniently means they can avoid providing resources. What happens with in situations such as DLA/PIP interviews, if they arise? She will deny any difficulties and likely lose her DLA.

So I asked myself, do I get a professional to state on record that she has anosognosia? Trying to foresee the implications of that causes new concerns. On the one hand, it will be officially recognised and is evidence for any of the above scenarios that might arise, on the other, what if it followed her to adulthood and caused her problems? What if she became a parent one day and professionals deemed her (rightly or wrongly) as having parenting deficits and lacking insight into them and unable to change? Knowing the parent-blame culture that exists now and the tragedies occurring to autism families misjudged by social services, it could happen. It’s a scary prospect. And if she became a parent, there is a significant chance she’d have an autistic child, what if she refused to recognise autism in her own child and seek help for them? There are so many potential issues with this.

I believe there needs to be focused research on anosognosia in autistics, there needs to be a way to reach someone with this, to help them understand their neurology and be at peace with it. Autism is an integral part of who someone is, you can’t separate it out. If someone needs help, it’s important that they recognise that and accept help from others. How can someone grow and problem-solve in their life if they don’t understand themselves? We all need to recognise our weaknesses as well as our strengths, not to allow them to hold us back, but to work with what we’ve got and make the best of it. And there needs to be recognition in the professional world, that a high-functioning autistic, no matter how high their IQ, cannot be deemed to have full capacity, if they do not have the capacity to recognise their own difficulties and the parental knowledge of the individual must not be dismissed.

State Kidnapping of the Children of Autistic Mothers

by Planet Autism Blog22/01/201613/01/2018

What can be done, about the utterly shocking situation of decent autistic mothers (some who were undiagnosed at the time), intelligent and caring women who love their children, having them ripped away on the basis of false accusations, misrepresentation and/or misunderstanding of autism, discrimination – and who were in no way neglectful or abusive to their children? How can this be allowed? What sort of society are we to stand by and watch while it happens?

I have encountered 3-4 autistic mothers online just in the last year or so, who have had 1-4 children each stolen this way, as a result of accusations of MSBP/FII. All the women have come across as caring, warm-hearted and desperately loving their children and wanting them back. I have contacts who know of far more cases through almost daily pleas for help, they are just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine all those out there who don’t know where to turn and never contact anyone for help?

Genuine MSBP/FII cases are very rare. It is not a condition in itself, it is a set of behaviours caused by mental illness, or in some cases personality disorder, making the parent/carer either induce or invent conditions in their child for attention. Approximately ⅔ to ¾ of general child protection referrals turn out to be unwarranted. Imagine how much rarer it is for an MSBP/FII accusation to be true. In this presentation, Dr Helen Hayward-Brown (medical anthropologist) goes through the relevant points showing how wrongly it is used against parents and how they don’t stand a chance against such accusations. She wrote a 1999 paper in which she explains extremely thoroughly, how this “diagnosis” is misused and for the reasons it is currently being misused, is almost impossible to prove innocence of, citing many valid points which are overlooked by the authorities blindly accepting it as a truth. Many of the supposed “traits” of it, are the traits any concerned parent would show in a medical situation with their child. But autistic mothers being misunderstood, are very vulnerable to these false accusations.

Autism is one of a variety of conditions, which can be either misunderstood or unrecognised by doctors and when parents persist in trying to get their child’s difficulties recognised or supported, sometimes professionals retaliate with false accusations of MSBP/FII. It does seem to be becoming increasingly common for professionals, protecting resources, irritated with parents seeking support for their child, or parents disagreeing with professionals, to be instigators of revenge accusations. Professionals stick together, one makes an accusation and it is immediately taken as valid by all the others. Something documented, however false, follows someone round from report to report, where they all quote the original and one another, as gospel ~ either through confirmation bias, or collusion.

Autistic traits in a parent, mean they may communicate in an atypical way, not show the deference professionals expect and are vulnerable to being misunderstood. Discrimination makes people ill – the NHS admits it here. If the child is autistic, especially if undiagnosed, professionals can mistake their autism traits as signs of abuse or neglect.

When an autistic parent is in court, especially if they are undiagnosed, they face a system which despite the law, does not proactively provide reasonable adjustments and is a bed of ignorance and lack of awareness of autism by those in power. This leaves the parent highly vulnerable to being misinterpreted and wrongly judged.

Some autistic parents are wrongly accused of or diagnosed with, having personality disorders. I have compiled a list of autistic traits which can be mistaken for grandiosity or narcissism (a particular Aspie mum lost her children by use of such false accusations):

outspokenness/bluntness because people with Asperger’s are very honest often due to not processing likely impact;
lack of recognising ‘status’ in people of authority/professionals or lack of understanding of social hierarchies (hence talking to them at an equal level and not showing the deference that NTs might);
difficulties in voice modulation (speaking either too quietly or too loudly) and loud volume of speech can be mistaken for domineering attitude;
intense research and absorbing of facts which gives a “mini professor” appearance that can be mistaken for a “know-it-all” by others;
difficulties in interpreting when it’s turn to speak, giving wrong impression of interruption purposely and in ignorance of the opinions of others;
monologuing, mistaken as opinionated or selfish;
difficulties focusing when in conversation with others, so needing to ‘get out’ everything has to say in one go, mistaken for being overbearing;
difficulties knowing when others are bored or unwilling to listen, can be mistaken for arrogance or selfishness.

There may be some autistic parents (as with non-autistic ones) who need parenting courses or support to adequately parent, but that does not mean that autistic person cannot be a good parent! There are plenty of amazing autistic parents out there!

The trauma to the child and parents from removing children are massive and lifelong. That damage cannot be undone. Your DNA carries forward trauma to future generations. So what such state abuse does, is damage those they traumatise and their future generations of children too. Considering also that the care system has such appalling outcomes for children, considering how many foster and adoptive parents abuse children (blood is thicker than water) too, how can they excuse this?

And added to that, as autistic parents often have autistic children, neurodiverse children that have not been diagnosed, are handed to new families on the pretext that their challenging behaviour is caused by abuse or neglect. How many autistic children are wrongly diagnosed with attachment disorder? A 2014 Parliamentary Inquiry into UK CAMHS, found that particular groups of children were being failed, one of these groups was adopted children. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out, how many supposedly suffering attachment disorder, actually had autism or ADHD? So some supposedly abused or neglected children were removed wrongfully and even where it was known they were autistic and they were removed because the parents couldn’t cope, services clearly failed to provide the right support to enable them to keep their children. Only this week, a story has surfaced about a little boy who has been taken from parents with learning disabilities (the mother was said to have autistic traits), who were admittedly devoted and all they needed was the right support to parent adequately. The little boy’s behaviour was blamed on their lack of boundaries, but with both parents learning disabled and one potentially autistic, what are the odds his behaviour was in fact due to autism?

Autistic children do not necessarily have the same needs as non-autistic children either. A social worker may for instance believe the parent is not socialising them enough, but many autistic children have meltdowns in the company of peers due to sensory issues, or do not want to play with peers who ridicule them, or they prefer playing alone. So social workers are judging parents by neurotypical standards, and autism families will therefore always be found lacking according to the tick-boxes.

Social workers are not taking up the autism training they are required to according to the Autism Act 2009. So more parents will continue to suffer misrepresentation and discrimination. This is appalling and cannot continue. Things have to change and soon. With adoption being (ridiculously) irreversible in the UK (shockingly “public policy” ~ AKA saving face, is considered more important than destroying families lives), it’s too late for many.

If you consider how ordinary parents can fall victim to wrongful child protection interventions, imagine how much worse it is if you have a condition they are ignorant about?

Added to which, the DoH statutory guidance regarding autistic adults is so wishy-washy, authorities can get away without doing very much at all to diagnose and support autistic adults. The DoH Statutory guidance for Local Authorities and NHS organisations to support implementation of the Adult Autism Strategy applies to all local authorities, NHS bodies and NHS Foundation Trusts and replaces the 2010 statutory guidance. It relates to England only. Shockingly, authorities’ provision of a diagnostic pathway, adhering to the NHS NICE Guidance on assessing adults with autism and triggering of post-diagnostic assessment of needs, only come under the “should” category, which means, despite the Autism Act 2009, no authority will be held to account if they don’t ensure these are in place and working for all relevant adults. So misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis, which are all too common, will keep on happening. What incentive will there be when autism is the most expensive diagnosis to support and authorities are trying to save money?

So the issue of autistic parents being unsupported, misunderstood, misrepresented and discriminated against will continue, unless the Government does something to change it. The Government has to listen to it’s people, so we must speak out, and speak out loud!

Edited 29.5.16: Preliminary research research results about the discrimination against autistic mothers here: https://insar.confex.com/insar/2016/webprogram/Paper22166.html “Allegations of fabricated illness, and high rates of surveillance by social services suggest there may be discrimination towards mothers with autism.”

CAMHS and autism: A story in pictures…

by Planet Autism Blog23/06/201424/06/2014

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so this post will be telling a story in pictures…

THE CLAIM…

AND THE REALITY…

This is a story of thousands of children on the autistic spectrum, not getting their needs met, by a service that is unfit for purpose. The NAS website has documents entitled “You Need To Know…” regarding evidence on this problem, as reported by thousands of parents UK-wide.