AIBU to ask for your help with social services?

[starryeyed19]

I'm posting this for traffic as a sudden appointment has come up for us to finally have a full assessment for my DS8 who has autism, ADHD and severe learning difficulties.

I don't want to turn it into a counselling session for me but would really like to get some more respite care for my son and general help for the summer holidays. Does anyone have any advice or examples of the kind of things I can ask for or what to cover with the social worker?

TIA

Get structured in advance, write down what you need as a list and take it with you.

Have a think about practically what could help so (bare in mind I have no clue, I'm just coming up with ideas here) possibilities are:

Cleaners or carers at home
A personal assistant to take your son to activities
Any kind of out of school club that may be appropriate

Does your son need support at night? Are they able to provide someone to provide that so you can get some sleep?

Ask about personal budgets, how to get one, what they can be used for etc

Look at the local offer
Speak to a local parent of parent group to find out what is o offer and what you can ask about
Ask for twice as much as what you want so you can accept less.

Think or a typical day in holidays and spell out what help you need and what it would be used for

E.g. 8 00 am help.for.two hours to supervise d's so I can shower and sort out younger child and prepare food for the day
10 am help.for.four hours to go outt to an activity
Or one to on e at holiday club
Or referral to access specialist play scheme transport needs to be provided

One weekend a month 48 hours respite away from home to give d's new experiences and allow parents to catch up on sleep

Etc.

You can talk about impact on other siblings or your health sleep etc

Thank you! This is all really helpful