Advocate importance for aspergers

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA2TXev6Umc[/youtube]

How many threads do we have about this topic? Oh yeah, a veritable shedload.

To be fair, It's not KenG making those threads, and that video is not about self-advocacy.

Yes, and I think it helps make a good point: Something beyond "self-advocacy" is actually needed.

Yeah, I agree with it. If I didn't have the advocacy/assistance I've had so far, I wouldn't have any benefits nor would I have any idea what to do with SSI. I'm somewhat better with forms than the woman in the video, but not by a lot.

Self-advocacy is important as well, simply because of how so much of the cultural awareness about autistic people is driven by the autism community - parents and professionals - and how much autistic people are frozen out of that dialogue.

Can you elaborate a bit? I presently have an attorney planning to help me with a appeal, and I do intend to let that attorney know I believe I do need an advocate ... but then maybe he is only intending to be a high-priced clerk?

Washington DSHS (Department of Social and Health Services) has been providing me with a ton of support for everything ever since my actual evaluation where they determined I was disabled and unemployable. Dealing with social security directly is more difficult because of course I need more documentation - but DSHS got me onto the state health care plan so I could get diagnoses and treatment documented for what will probably take me to a hearing (like they often do).

As I understand it, a good disability attorney will help a lot with these kinds of things with SSI, and not just be a high priced clerk, but I don't know how common that is. At the very least, since he'll get paid a good chunk of money if your appeal goes through, it makes sense in a pragmatic sense that he'd want you to succeed and may be able to help you with that. But I don't know for sure how that gets handled.

This is an excellent point. The assistance process is so complicated; and many people are not even aware of assistance like SSI. Without the help of family and friends many poeple are completely lost in the process. For those people without family of friends, advocacy can be the difference between being homeless or having a safe place to stay. I think the outreach effort in advocacy is important because many people have no idea where to start.

I had an idea on where to start but my mother actually kick-started the process because I was basically ... clueless ... on how to start. And I didn't even know what all DSHS would offer beyond the cash assistance (which is itself pretty necessary).

Bureaucracy confuses and intimidates me. It's ridiculous.

I really needed an advocate today at the doctor's office. The world of ignorance and misunderstanding there might eventually actually kill me. I went there in complete candor to let them know about the extra medication I am taking for my hypertension since their most-recent prescriptions are insufficient, and I ended up being treated like some kind of mental case just trying to get attention and more medication. I try really hard to not be foolishly paranoid and all of that, but the evidence surely does suggest they really do not care whether I live or die.