What lack of support causes

List of what lack of support causes

• Depression
• Uncertainty 
• Increased anxiety
• Lack of routine
• Isolation
• Lack of confidence
• Increase of self harm
• Stress
• Breakdown of family relationships
• lead to loss of jobs
• loss of living accommodations
• Increased risk of health issues
• Unable to access school and learning
• Unable to attend health appointments 
• Lack of appetite
• Lack of motivation
• Late diagnosis
• Anger
• Frustration
• Confusion
• Lack of trust in professional services
• Lack of self respect
• Low self esteem
• Struggles with burnouts
• Irrational behaviour

Anonymous- Autistic Mother (self diagnosed) of Autistic Children

Lack of support for me as a mother with two autistic children is a massive issue and something we deal with a lot. It affects us in so many ways, my children are not accessing school and education correctly because their needs aren’t always met even with EHCPs. This then means they often come home extremely heightened and stressed which often leads to meltdowns we have reached out many times to cahms for help with this and never had much support at all other than parenting courses which do not help so we have had to do our own research to try learn how to help them ourselves and in this I fear we may not always be helping correctly as we are just having to learn as we go along. When going to appointments we feel there is a serious lack of understanding in their needs and therefore the wrong support is often offered to us.

We miss out on many family occasions/day trips out as we cant get any support and help with our children’s more complex needs so they miss out on a lot. This also affects their siblings as they end up missing out which does cause stress within the family. We feel after diagnosis there is very little support offered to children other than talking therapy and basic play therapy and groups which they often can’t access because they are loud and not well designed around autistic children. 

I personally feel the early years are so important because the lack of support in all areas means too many autistic children are not getting the help they need from the start and this is creating anxiety, depression , isolation and poor learning outcomes that will follow them into adulthood. This will eventually potentially affect them when it comes to getting jobs when it comes to them wanting to move out even accessing higher education because if they are not supported correctly many of them things will become impossible.