Cornwall UK calling the Autistic Community. SOS - HELP

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Hello everyone. I am putting out a plea as I am just on my knees with work.

Cornwall in the SW of the United Kingdom would appear to have been cut off from the mainland of the UK (not literally ) and we here have NO services for those of us on the AS. Children and adults are being ignored and left invisible.

I am working 18hrs a day round the clock voluntarily to try and support as many of these families as I can. I work for nothing and the load is getting unbearably hard. Without Jelibean these folk would be totally lost.

Apparently we have £20 million stockpiled in Cornish Schools yet those on the spectrum have NOTHING.

This is a link to show you of some of the atrocities of what is going on. Children being thrown into INCLUSION ROOMS cleverly disguised but really they are SECLUSION ROOMS. They are put in there for up to a month without PARENTS KNOWLEGE.

Children in Cornwall are excluded from certain subjects., banned from using the computer (which theoretically bans them from every lesson). Is this happening anywhere else? Or is it as I suspect particularly bad in Cornwall?

We don't appear to have anyone trained in Autism in the whole county? Unless anyone knows better. I do hold a PG Cert in Autism though? My colleague Barbara Jacobs has just completed a PhD in Autism and we have Professor Tony Attwood as our patron, I have told Cornwall but it has fallen on deaf ears so far

So maybe if there is someone reading this from Cornwall who can hear our pleas, they may like to correct me if I am wrong?

This post is designed to hi- light what isn't happening for children in one county in UK. We also have legislation called the LAMB INQUIRY AND THE AUTISM BILL, however it would appear the majority of Cornwall are not aware of that?

Here is the link that will take you to more ....please feel free to comment. Thank you
So if anyone has some advice or would just like to comment and bump this thread so that someone may take notice somewhere we would be very very grateful and thank you. AND Cornwall if you are reading this.....we want to work WITH you NOT against you. Thank you.

http://juderobinson.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/jelibean/



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I think you'll find this is the situation throughout the UK, not just Cornwall. I'm a little closer to civilisation than you (somerset). And I don't see anything of real value on offer here, either.

Despite all the words about what should and could be done, precious little is actually *being* done. Aspergers seems such an unpopular cause, I sometimes wonder if politicians are worried the public will resent leeway given to those with an "invisible disability". There are so many competing causes trying to get resources, I guess AS is way, way down the list. So we get the hot air, some spin and not much else.

The Autism Bill seems the text book example of the right sounding words being used to smoke screen a lack of any real substance. I quote: "The Government will address issues relating to the collection of data on adults with autism.". As an adult with AS I can verify that so far the government has done NOTHING to collect data on me. Obviously I am not the only one.

I had some hopes when I first read about it, but on closer inspection: "Facilititating blah", "Strategic guidance yadda yadda". Perhaps the purpose is to lead us to think that something is being done, only it isn't happening here so it must be elsewhere.

Could any UK WP members kindly give any examples where good support *is* being provided?

Thanks for replying ManErg, I agree the whole country is pretty dam awful and YES you are closer to civilisation than we are - we still don't have a motorway, university, teaching hospital, school of education? So yes we are out in the sticks.

However how many other counties can say that there is 20 MILLION POUNDS stockpiled?? I am a Londoner and have lived in Buckinghamshire, North Devon and now Cornwall, I promise you it is like the back of beyond here and particularly bad. We have noone TRAINED in the whole county not in Autism anyway, not unless they are hiding somewhere.

I completely appreciate that the situation for those of us on the spectrum is very poor pretty much everywhere, however the stories I am picking up on a daily basis are simply atrocious and beyond belief. I have to raise the issues somehow, somewhere, WP is the biggest forum and the best attended, so I just thought I would raise awareness for a small county hanging off the end of the UK, called Cornwall. Often it is the most seeminly idyllic places that there hides true hardship and stories that you just couldn't make up.

You are right ManErg, an invisible disablility ...seeing is believing and whilst we remain invisible we are at the bottom of the list, how sad is that

Anyway just putting Cornwall and those of all the parents that I try and support on the map officially to what I believe is the most appropriate forum.


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