"My journey through services with my autistic children"

My enduring takeaway which spans the past 12 years dealing with SLC HSCP and Education is one of enduring disappointment as well as loss of faith and trust in the majority of Health and Social Care/Education practitioners and their respective services.

On repeated occasions services have proven totally ineffectual, and ill-equipped to intervene meaningfully when things were at their worst and my children, at different stages in their lives  being in a state of crisis. I felt shamed and blamed on repeated occasions when desperately seeking support to save my children's lives. Instead of much needed intervention this took the form of being directed to parenting programmes which proved entirely irrelevant and nothing to do with autism or suicidal ideation. Matters were compounded by being told on one occasion that my eldest sons diagnosis was what I wanted...and had ticked the boxes. This led to years of self blame when i believed i was solely responsible for my children's struggle with their mental and physical health and neurodivergence.

It was only as the direct intervention of a clinician in Glasgow NHS diabetic psychology team that I was referred to ARCH South Lanarkshire. Over the subsequent 4 years ARCH gave me the support, knowledge and information I needed to understand my children's issues, to regain my self confidence and respect, and equipped me with strategies and supports to improve my children's wellbeing. I was also able to re-frame many previous encounters  i had with professionals who seemed to be solely committed to a medicalised model of autism, and who embodied many unhelpful and ableist attitudes. By pursuing my own higher education  alongside the support and encouragement of ARCH and fellow autism community members I also reached  a deeper appreciation of co-occurring conditions which sit alongside autism, but are distinct conditions in their own right and require discrete interventions. These included, trauma, depression, diabetes, CPTSD, ADHD, suicidal ideation, anxiety and many others too numerous to list.

My children had to endure interventions which were mainly reliant on conventional talking  therapies such as CBT, and which did nothing to alleviate or remedy their distressed state of mind. I then explored private options as well as self directed support through social work services. The latter was an entirely useless process ,despite seeking and receiving support from Take Control, my local MSP and ARCH. I was also offered the chance to talk to 2 newly appointed managers who were tasked with improving  SDS, but seen no  subsequent progress. This left me feeling ignored, and my son's needs unmet. During this period I was forced to  balance one son's need for transport to and from school, with my other son's suicidal intent after he had been hospitalised for this condition. Even when this dilemma was outlined to social workers, there was no offer of support made and sds suggested as an appropriate route. I subsequently discovered that sds is for stable and ongoing conditions and not crisis intervention. It has impacted my own mental and physical health, resulting in prescribed medication.

The past 5 years in particular have seen 2 of my 3 children making suicide attempts, and my third seeking crisis intervention due to suicidal ideation. Last year my youngest son received a dual diagnosis of AuDHD from NHSL's neurodevelopmental team after being initially referred from NHS Glasgows CAMHS crisis team , but despite this has never received any ongoing therapeutic support with the exception of  the offer a follow up appointment from the NHSL's ND team to explain his condition. This ignored entirely his mental health and suicide attempt. My oldest daughter also experienced her own mental health issues during this time, and in spite of identifying as neurodivergent herself elected not to pursue her own diagnosis due to her brother's experiences and the inordinate waiting times, with adult ADHD assessments now being terminated entirely.

I have also been dissatisfied with the support I and my children have received in South Lanarkshire schools.

All in all  the sum of my family's experiences with South Lanarkshire Education, CAMHS, ND team and Social Work personnel-from social workers, to the Director of social work himself  have been extremely negative.