Anyone else noticing the uptick in open hostility towards people with ASD?

[FFSakeDrinkSake]

As the title says. It feels like it's open season recently. In the last few weeks alone I've seen many threads questioning the validity of Asd, the credentials of those diagnosing the condition, the 'explosion' of diagnosis', the 'fact' that you qualify for extra benefits if you are autistic and/or have ADHD, the apparent drain on resources kids with ASD have on the educational sector depriving others and most recently the idea that someone (self diagnosed) can 'outgrow' autism. Most of which contain the worst misinformation about what we're trying to deal with on a daily basis and making it sound like we're just trying to .. i dont even know tbh.. scam our way through life?

Disclaimer NATAAT.

@SwordToFlamethrower there's nothing vile about it, its the truth! I know lots of my ex colleagues ( HCP's) think the same!

But you also said they don't believe in mental illness so not really people to be trusted.

Also I can't believe people are focusing on bloody theme parks. How many people actually go to big theme parks in a year? You really think this is driving discrimination at a societal level?

If your main point of grift is someone getting to go on a Rollercoaster a bit quicker I think you need to take a hard look at yourself.

Given everyone is ND then that means we have to meet everyone's needs and they are conflicting. It is the best fit...and learning to manage with certain things.

No they aren't. But eventually schools start to put in consequences for kids which annoy parents (requiring parental effort). Eg meetings, phone calls, exclusions, detentions.

So rather than deal with their parenting, the parents now have adhd as the trump card to stop anyone (including them) having any expectation of their child.

@SummerDays2020 no i didn't say that! I said that they think mental health issues are one of the things that the workshy brigade use to get signed off work and get benefits!

Well, this thread certainly made your point well, didn’t it OP!!

What happen if they are pre school age?

This seems very restrictive, many teachers are fabulous but they are not able to diagnose ASD, that is not within their remit.

In our area parents can even self refer, they get sent a questionnaire and then initial triage is done by a specialist OT or SLT to see if should progress to paediatrician assessment.

Oh, that’s ok then 😂🙄

I haven't said I joke about disability. I said it is joked about and the truth is, it is.

The kind of jokes I have made or laughed at about disability are incredibly dark and to be honest some situations need to be laughed at otherwise we'd go mad.

Kids with adhd/asd are still given fixed term and permanent exclusions it’s not a trump card if you aren’t doing anything else to solve the issue

What does NATAAT mean?

But you have to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist. Do they not think psychiatrists are very good at their jobs or what?

Not a thread about a thread

It's a lot lot lot harder to exclude a child with a diagnosis.

Constantly logging interventions that have been tried (meanwhile the other 29 kids aren't getting an education, instead they're fed up with Fred being given permission to dick around. Fred says "you can't give me a detention, my mum will phone up and get it cancelled. You can't put me in IE, I'll phone mum and she'll pick me up instead. Rare case but approx 1% of kids in a year group are like this. Which is 2 per year, so 58 kids not being educated....

I think any parent of SEN children knows all about the continuous calls, meetings and yes even detentions and exclusions.

So you do joke about disability then?

They've just introduced school referral in our area as well (was previously GP). I suspect, like everything else, it's to introduce a layer of friction in the referral system, expecting overworked schools to do the paperwork. Every few months delayed benefits the LA budget.

I think preschool can go through the HV. Schools obviously not expected to diagnose though, just to raise the question.

That's the point though, the genuine clases (which are most) have no idea how the less genuine parents are and behave. You are all assuming everyone out there acts in as good faith as you, and they really really don't.

When JCQ had slightly looser rules around children sitting exams in a small room, initially 2/3 kids a year used it. Until 2018ish and especially 2021, centres were reporting 30+ students per year group requesting it for "anxiety". JCQ tightened up the process and the numbers have come right down.

No I joke about situations. Eg wanting to put a cattle prod on the front of ds' wheelchair to stop people standing right infront of him or if he gets out of his wheelchair and runs wanting to shout "it's a miracle, thank the lord" to onlookers who don't understand that some people who use wheelchairs can not only walk but run at times. Him using his aac device to describe a hippo when a large lady got in an elevator with us (he didn't do this deliberately or in a hurtful manner).

Some situations although very serious do need to be laughed at or we'd all go crazy.

@MultiplaLight those parents would be a PITA though anyway.

It's perfectly possible to have ADHD and be a genuine pain in the bum, or have parents who are so. I'm sure they'd be having a go anyway, diagnosis or no.

This is ridiculous conspiracy theorising. The local authority -an education service - does not hold the sway of influence on how the NHS foundation trust -an health service - decides to run its referral systems. Much more likely that the NHS wants to add a "layer of friction" to stem the rising tide of referrals; nothing to do with LA budgets.

We have reached 'the tragedy of the commons' at this point. The ever rising demand and expectation for a diagnosis of ADHD and/or autism is unsustainable. The health service, state education and society at large cannot accommodate this. It is telling that prominent psychiatrists such as Allen Frances admit there is a crisis of overdiagnosis. It is certainly what I am hearing from a lot of GPs and psychiatrists locally. The needs of those with learning disability and SMI get neglected. Our concept of AuADHD is ever expanding and encompasses behaviour that the vast majority of the population display. Demand for stimulants, reasonable adjustments and other benefits may be more indicative of the hypercompetitive arms race modern life has become. What is the end point here?

we had to hire extra invigilators to cover all the extra needs - lot of anxiety/mental health issues and all the kids have the right paperwork. Then it’s not just extra-timers and/or laptop use or scribes but we also had a couple this year who needed rest breaks.

funnily enough over half of our psychology students had ‘needs’ by the exam dates.

parents are more than happy to pay for assessments. Slow-processing seemed a popular route

How do you know he hasn't got ADHD?