AIBU to just want to shout “ other disabilities exist “

[winterplease21]

it seems that everywhere at the moment including newspapers, forums , government are trying to cause debates surrounding the cost of disability to our country. This could be welfare costs, educations costs etc etc

every single one of theee debates turns in to only about those with ADHD and Autism.

the constant comments “ everyone wants a disabled child, they are all teaching eachother to get diagnosis’s “
I don’t have an opinion on this but don’t people realise that not all EHCP granted are for adhd / autism and as quoted the 1 in 10 secondary school children on disability benefits are not all autism and ADHD and there is a lot of other reasons why children may need extra funding at school and disability benefits.

every disability debate I’ve seen just turns on to those with her are nuerodivergent.
im not saying they they are not important but to those harping on how there is too many disabled people like sorry we can’t exactly reverse a brain injury, heart disease and organ failure 😩

Literally no one would begrudge a child with a brain injury, organ failure, profound disability etc etc extra help/funding/benefits.

The conversation is around autism/ADHD because there's a suspicion of overdiagnosis.

It's not been easy to get an autism diagnosis for my DD who has Down Syndrome. For those saying there's an over-diagnosis, are they saying it's simple to say your child meets the criteria?

I suspect this is because many disabilities and the costs involved are very obvious and not really in dispute.

if you have down’s you have down’s.
if you have epilepsy you have epilepsy etc.

nobody is arguing about these because there are agreed medical procedures and diagnostic processes that are largely agreed with.

in the same way a non verbal severely autistic child has obvious needs.

a lot of the debate is around “milder” autism and adhd where the needs are less obvious.

(declaration of interest my child has AuDHD.)

⅓ of EHCPs are for children with ASD. It's talked about because it's a large proportion, and there's no categorical test like a blood test that can be used to diagnose. As the parent to 3 children who have ASD, have EHCPs, and have special school places, I get that.

This is the reason. It's not usually that people think no one should get a disability benefit, it's that they are suspicious of certain claims.

I don't know how old you are OP, but a few decades ago there were suspicions around people claiming back injuries. It was the go-to thing for people who wanted to be off work, very difficult to prove the pain wasn't real. And to some extent, it was not always about people deliberately scamming - people had some real pain and believed that they should get off work too.

You'll see that this is not a problem particularly today, because the rules were modified and also the doctors caught on to the problem and it became much harder to get a diagnosis without real evidence of impact.

Yeh debates about benefits and stopping / stricter rules etc affect them all though.
using people’s negativity against autism and ADHD to get people on board with cutting disability help.

we can’t exactly reverse a brain injury, heart disease and organ failure

But you can prove these conditions with tests/scans and even the majority of uneducated people will agree and believe. With autism and ADHD the diagnosis is based on symptoms and a lot of people think it’s made up, bad parenting, people seeking benefits or a label.

It's so much harder if there's another condition that has developmental impact. The diagnostic criteria includes 'can't be better explained by another condition' and that makes it really tricky, so often you have to wait until developmental milestones are met in other areas, then explore the areas which lag.

DD1 has a brain malformation and receptive and expressive language disorder. So she was 15 before they finally assessed for ASD.

I'm not sure whst your saying?
Autism and ADHD can't be reversed either
And some are profoundly disabled by their Autism,ADHD etc.

But you can see from the responses that no, or very few, people want to stop all benefits. Claiming that people who have concerns want tat doesn't work because they know it's not true. It just looks like a manipulative claim.

What they don't want is to pay for people who should not be getting the benefit.

It sounds like you are saying that benefits should be given to anyone who wants them/claims to be eligible, in order to legitimise those who do in fact really need/qualify for them.

That doesn't make sense.

I know you can’t reverse them either, sorry that was probably bad wording.

issue is they are using this whole there are too many disabled children due to the ramp up in ADHD and Autism Diagnosis which I don’t agree with by the way but don’t realise that what thry are suggesting causes issues for all different ranges of disabilities not just nuerodivergent ones.

That’s not what the government are doing though the previous suggestion for example of
not allowing under a certain age disability benefits was not only those with autism / ADHD. Scrapping EHCPs , trying to stop parents the right to appeal.

But autism can be profound ,my son is 15 has a diagnosis of autism and learning disabilities, he's completely non verbal and functions at around 2/3 years of age.

My stance on the ADHD/ autism conversation is that autism is obviously a diagnosisable condition and so to is ADHD.

I have seen, through my job as a FSW, so many parents pushing to get an ADHD diagnosis for their child. They make all sorts of claims about their child's behaviours. When the child comes to our respite centre, we initially see some challenging behaviours when we put boundaries and consequences in place but once the child realises that all the staff have a constant but fair approach we see a different child who accepts these rules and we see a behave change. There is literally no need for medication for this child and once off we see even more improvements.

When we report back at meetings we hear the same thing, ,'well he doesn't behave like that with us'. When we unpick it we find that boundaries have never put in place and suddenly when a child is 9 or 10 it's a big problem. They can't handle been told ' no' and kick offs follow including the child can't regulate their emotions, they can be violent and so on.

I want to make it clear that I see children with ADHD and see their struggles and the affect it has on parents and other siblings. These families need support and help. Some families are fighting like mad to get their child into a Special needs school and its not fair that they are rejected so many times
Other families just need to parent their children.
I had one parent who had her child tested for ADHD/ autism and instead of being pleased that the daughter was not on the spectrum and wasnt autistic or have ADHD demanded that she was tested for something else. When we asked what mum just said, well there must be something you can test for.....anything?

I am still in contact with this child through school. She is a regular teen girl with no issues but mum was determined to make her have some.
Keep in mind, we know families well, we can know them for years some of mine I've known for 20 years as they have had other children and need SS involvement.We are in their houses several times a week, we have relationship's with their children, we know people's struggles and also their good times. We also know when people want PIP.

I'm probably going to get a flamming for this post, but Ive been round the block with my job too many times to not see what I see and hear.

It's DLA for children not PIP
And yes some people do want it and apply for very tenuous reasons but that doesn't mean theu will be successful
Also If a child is getting respite then there must be a recognised need for thst ?
I have a package of respite for my son,but it took years,
And we only get it due to his complex disabilities.

x2boys
It's DLA for children not PIP
Many our children are 16 and over. We work with young people mainly up to 18 but in some cases 25.

And yes some people do want it and apply for very tenuous reasons but that doesn't mean theu will be successful
Also If a child is getting respite then there must be a recognised need for thst ?
Packages of care are reviewed and reduced and also finished.

I have a package of respite for my son,but it took years,
And we only get it due to his complex disabilities. and so you should, and its wrong it took years to get it.

Surely if you work with children, it’s DLA claims and not PIP that you deal with? DLA is based on care needs and has nothing to do with a diagnosis.

Which, anyone who has tried to get a diagnosis for their child will confirm is absolutely not the case. If anything it is underdiagnosed.

I was going to say it took us 6 years to get something like that with around the clock medical cares 🫣

I think historically it has been underdiagnosed and also other conditions such as Asperger’s and SPD are now covered by ASC. As a result, it looks like a big increase instead of better recognition and (by some people) appropriate understanding.

The problem is the country can’t afford to give the current level of support for the number of conditions which are now identified. So either some will have to be excluded or the level of support for all will have to be cut.

It’s something like 1/10 people and that’s not sustainable. 1/4 cars on the road is a notability car and you can get them for anxiety and acne.

I would prefer to cut benefits for many mental health conditions, put the money into MH treatment and protect the government support for other disabilities.

I've just seen a teenage girl who I suspect has ADHD.
First question Mum asks... Can she get PIP for that.🙄

Its not the diagnosis that gets you help... its how badly you're affected.

Erm yes they would my friends child was a make a wish kid "well its alright for some" was a running theme like childhood cancer was aspirational

But are you claiming benefits/support for your child?
The diagnosis isn't the problem it's the fact that many see it as a route PIP and carers allowance - even in milder forms

I've three neurodivergent children one out in the world working has degrees no issues one minimal issues gets by with support one who will most likely never be independent only the worst one gets benefits because he is the one effected the most