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Craig28
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05 Sep 2010, 9:48 am

I'm taking a stand, who is with me?

One of the key things about having AS is the inability to form solid relationships. The professionals know this and they have helped set up AS support groups.. They also know that people with AS find it hard to find love and sex. So with that in mind, along with the other services that we get help with such as employment, housing, benefits and education etc, they should help provide a service whereby people with AS in the UK can meet each other and possibly form a friendship or something more serious. There may be service charges, but I am willing to pay.

By not getting help in this area, I fully believe that the professionals are picking and choosing what help we can recieve. They are breaking ethical and moral guidelines. These professionals are without a disability and do not understand how the AS mind works. They just think they do.



Laz
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05 Sep 2010, 10:40 am

Why don't you ask the Nottingham Asperger Team why such a service does not exist?

I could see the potential problems being down to liability of the organisation in circumstances were vulnerable adults are potentially exposed to people who are predatory in nature. There was a case in wales a few years ago were a repeated sexual offender possed as an individual with AS and used the local NAS social group to aquire access to vulnerable young adolescent's he had fled social services in northern ireland in order to evade arrest and had successfully posed as an individual with AS with no scrutiny of his diagnosis or background.

The main problem with the creation of such services is that no service model currently exists. Therefore depending where you live in the UK you will have varying strategies by differin local authorites on how to prepare to meet the expectations of the upcoming autism bill. These vary from extensions of the the community learning disability teams such as what was pioneered in Liverpool and what has been copied in Nottingham. To full blown best practice bodies such as the Surrey NHS trust. These are all outlined in the preceeding documents that came before the autism bill was proposed and are avaible to read online as PDF files.



Craig28
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05 Sep 2010, 12:05 pm

So to protect vulnerable Aspies, I and other people have to suffer and go without. Great. :twisted:

This thread can be closed.



Laz
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05 Sep 2010, 3:08 pm

Well that may not be the case. Why don't you ask the Nottingham NHS Trust Asperger Team? I know they exist because I applied for a position within their organisation back in early 2009. Failing that there is nothing to stop you being pro-active and seeing about what it would take to organise one in your home county.

Or throw a hissy fit and play the victim its your choice



Craig28
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05 Sep 2010, 4:06 pm

There was no need for that kind of talk. Was there? :shameonyou:



Laz
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05 Sep 2010, 4:24 pm

So, asking the asperger team? Craig?



Craig28
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05 Sep 2010, 4:26 pm

Laz wrote:
So, asking the asperger team? Craig?


If I still have my place, I havn't been for a month and I know how funny they can get with their "circle of friends" thing that they have going on.



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05 Sep 2010, 4:54 pm

NHS? Nepotism? Who'd of thought it.

Regardless of the politics they are your best port of call. If the aspies in Sheffield could manage to get their act together and form their own group independent of "services" I imagine its not beyond nottingham to do the same. Believe it or not you have it 10x times better then sheffield does and Sheffield has an autism research centre go figure.

But as I said before with regards to having some kind of relationship dating service you would have to take into account the kind of laibility under the law of the United Kingdom that would impact on the risks associated with such a setup. An organisation like the NHS doesn't do something out of spite, there are usually reasons behind it. It's either a legal implication or a funding implication. They don't want to expose themselves to potential ligitation in the future.



Craig28
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05 Sep 2010, 5:19 pm

I suppose its better to cover one's ass legally then not help those who can't help themselves. :roll:



Macbeth
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05 Sep 2010, 6:00 pm

1) Its entirely possible to create a "Social Group" for people to meet up. We did it, and we get even less help than Sheffield does.

2) There is a blurry line between what the local authority wants to (or should) provide, and what the NHS will provide. Aspergers often falls into a crack between the two. The Council will claim that you're not "disabled" enough to merit proper help or funding from them, whilst the NHS will point out that as it isn't an "illness" its not really part of their zone either. Both sides can be argued against, and both sides are also sort of right. The easiest way to GET help is with the co-morbid conditions (depression, anxiety etc.) The NHS don't really deal with "Social"...that's what "Social Services" are for. (Clue is in the name.)

3) We live in a town with the second worse social services in the country (after Haringey) and a council that is so bad it is being run by Central Government, because the Council is "unfit for purpose." Sheffield Aspergers service won't diagnose anyone from Doncaster because there is no money to pay for it. (£400 a head, I'm told.) The largest group that deals with Autism in the area is a group called Autism Plus, who have decided to put all their effort into services in Sheffield. To top it off, most of the social workers have been pulled from Adult Services to go to Child Services because Child Services are so awful they kill children. That's why my partner and I decided to "help ourselves" and others by volunteering with the NHS to set up Social Groups. So you could be in a lot worse area for "services" than Nottingham, or anywhere else for that matter.

4) I have a long term partner, and a diagnosis. She has a diagnosis as well. So its not always doom and despair. Aspies can get into meaningful relationships. And we did it without any official help.

5) Two of the people who attend our social group are in a committed relationship together, of their own making. All we did was provide the venue for them to meet.

6) A dating service would be a legal minefield for vulnerable people, so its quite sensible to avoid that sort of direct intervention. However, just being in social situations is a very good starting point for dating. Its how everybody else does it.


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06 Sep 2010, 1:37 am

Oh give it time Macbeth, Sheffield has its own skeletons in the closet just waiting to come out. I think every social service does to put it mildly. I've worked in 3 out of the 4 main areas of South Yorkshire so i've become quite familair with most of the local politics of that part of yorkshire. I have to say of all the areas social services/NHS trust's (Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster) I would say Doncaster was so obviously a clique and closed off to "outsiders" such as myself from outside Yorkshire, so when all those revelations about the social services emerged it didn't suprise me. One of my friends who had worked for Doncaster services and was seconded by them to train with me did her utmost to ensure she worked the opposite end of the country from them afterwards :lol:

Some authorities are beginning to prepare (albiet in an ad-hoc manor in most cases) to respond to the autism bill. And eventually all authorities will have to create some kind of provision for AS but until then you are sadly stuck with a post code lottery. You at least have something in South Yorkshire, I can't say the same for my home county. My county's attitude has been anyone or anything too complicated can be dealt with by the black hole that is London and thus they can avoid having to fund provision for such people.

With regards to the Sheffield Asperger services. They are only funded to diagnose a maximum of six people a year, unless your willing to go private. It's a very limited service and a lot of the professionals who are involved in AS within the city are also the sole learning disability provision as well. When push comes to shove sadly the people with the learning disabilitys are the ones more urgent in need. Your talking about a service with a case load of 20 max per community nurse with a waiting list that exceeds 500+ people about 100 or so of which are emergency referrals. I can count on my hands how many nurses there are for each end of sheffield. It gets worse when you have dual diagnostic services (mental health/learning disability) as theres only one 8O Ironically enough he has AS himself if you ever have the privelage of meeting him.

I remember 2 years or so ago sheffield released some kind of document on how they were going to plan to provide services for people with AS and it was a bit of a farce because barely anybody was consulted and it slipped under the radar of practically every group and organisation in the city. I really despiste PCT's that try and get away with that sort of nonsense they had absolutely no excuse not to consult with these people and it left a bitter taste in my mouth that they tried to circumvent the people who would use their new services and impose one on the city.



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06 Sep 2010, 2:55 am

@ Laz

Sadly Doncaster are too tight-arsed to pay for their own diagnostic service, despite the fact that the people who are recommending service users to Sheffield for diagnosis are only a single (fairly simple) qualification away from doing the diagnosis themselves. Doncaster itself has a HUGE waiting list, and an "Aspergers team" which is basically an exercise in box-ticking for the local authority. For about a year there was a fully functioning "combined ops" system between Social Services and the NHS, until the funding stopped. Social Services promptly wrote off the AS section and screwed a load of service users over in the process, leaving the NHS team (which now includes us as volunteers) to struggle on without proper co-ordinated help from Social Services. The contact that does happen with the SS is sporadic, and often involves them lying through their teeth about what help they can provide, because apparently just offering it is enough to be able to claim that they do it. However, because Doncaster in general is such a shabby s**thole when it comes to the Council, it seems that a lot of stuff is being buried or brushed aside. I have no issue with Child Services being as well-staffed and efficient as it can be. (Anything is superior to a service that all but murders the kids itself.) but it should not come at a cost to Adult Services, where the people can be just as vulnerable, just a little taller.

As for OUR part of the service: We are slowly building up a comprehensive "guide" to AS, and trying to achieve meaningful contacts with other relevant services, such as the local learning establishments. With the pitiful dribble of funding we are permitted, we try our best to give people with AS what they genuinely need and want. Slowly we get to gain momentum and hopefully contact groups in other areas for ideas/suggestions/help. I know one thing for sure, if Dave New World Cameron wants Big society to volunteer, he's going to have to sweeten the deal on the expenses to a little more than a Tesco Snack Pack deal a day.


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