Autism: Call for more support

2:50pm Thursday 7th February 2008

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By Camilla Sutcliffe »

AUTISTIC people are still feeling "isolated and ignored" because of a lack of dedicated services, a carer has claimed.

The National Autistic Society's 'I Exist' report said that 63% of adults with the condition did not have enough support to meet their needs.

But at Prospect House, a National Autistic Society residential home in Altham, people with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, are given the help they need to live an independent life.

Manager Amanda Ponton, who as worked at the home for 14 years, said programmes there worked to undo the damage of years of either inappropriate care, or complete lack of it.

She said: "Very often our clients have had a late diagnosis which meant they have either been without services at all, or have dipped in and out of them because no-one quite knows what support they need.

"Alternatively, people have been placed in what turns out to be an inappropriate placements in more general services, and come here when that placement has broken down.

"Autism is so complicated that usually the best care is geared entirely towards the condition, though we struggle nationally to get that specific funding, and that does cause problems - voluntary groups like us can only do so much."

Prospect House offers long-term and day care to support people into independence, teaching day-to-day life skills as well as ways of interacting with the public.

Mrs Ponton said: "The guys I deal with are all completely different, but the one thing they do have in common is difficulty in communication and interaction.

"Where in most people those skills develop naturally, an autistic person has to learn those skills, both the theory and the practice.

She said that more cash was needed for schemes like those at Prospect House to be set up by local authorities, geared entirely towards the condition, but added that understanding of autism had vastly improved.

She said: "Communication is getting better and referrals are becoming more appropriate to people's needs, but that doesn't mean we actually have the funding to get the extra services we need, and that's why the National Autistic Society is lobbying the government."