NAS... Any good for you?

[troutsprout]

Can I ask those with children with asd ( with or without dx)... Do any of you actually get any help or support from the NAS?
The ' help' courses/ conferences seem to have dried up around here and the only contact we ever seem to have is them phoning asking for money.
Tbh we have had more help and support from Crossroads. Just wondered what everyone else's experiences were?

I went on an EarlyBird course organised by my LA SENDIS, which is an NAS course. My local branch is fairly active, but we don't rely on them tbh.

I am booked onto a course in Sept as its the next one but have had phone advice.

I did go on the Earlybird course way back when, which Portage staffed. The local branch isn't that local, though, so I don't use it at all. I look at the website from time to time, but al the info seems a bit basic on there, not enough detail or depth.

No. Bloody useless organisation, at least for children. Perhaps they get better when adults.

no. other than the Earlybird course (which we 'had' to do in order to continue having support for dd1 at pre-school), I've not had anything to do with them.

oh other than the continual phonecalls asking for money

I think the local branch is relatively active, but not relevant to us. haven't been any use in any of the areas we've lived in.

Same here. I have lived in 3 areas since diagnosis and they've been hopeless in all 3. Advocates of families with children with ASD they are not.

Ok ... It's not just me then.

I went on a NAS help course a few years ago .... But that's it
Since then we've only had support from Crossroads care or PP or a local group -CHAPS.
Yes... Perhaps they are better for adults.

Well, you know, you could always volunteer yourself.

Our local one had a huge library of books on every aspect of asd, which was a great resource to the community. We worked quite closely with them on pan-disability stuff.

I suspect the reason that everything is grinding to a halt is because they have no money. Hence the phone calls. The majority of local NAS staff are volunteers - it's kinda hard to maintain a service without a cash flow.

Same for the courses - without funds, they can't run the courses. And the pct will be looking for savings wherever they can.

If you aren't getting the support you need, you need to shout louder, and start rattling pct and govt cages locally.

But please don't blame the local NAS volunteers.

I don't blame the volunteers. I blame the leadership and management and the internal politics.

Oh I do madwoman. Not NAS ... But local group.
Weren't moaning as such ... Just interested to see if I had a distorted pic

I do take your point, madwoman, but honestly, the NAS are just not interested in anything which would be of benefit to us/relevant.

yes, that is a moan, but not a 'why aren't they doing stuff for meeeeee' kind of way - more in a 'they do well enough, but don't register as an outfit which has us as a clientbase' kind of way.

even the Earlybird course was largely irrelevant to us by the time we were railroaded onto it (and tbf, if you are having to pressgang parents into attending, then maybe the course needs overhauling?), and dd1 was only 4! but even then, it was all geared to a very different level of abilty, and even the providers (who were staff from the SN school dd1 was supposed to go to) couldn't differentiate the activities for us

I do resent the way that they claim to represent all autism when (the last time I looked) they absolutely did not 'get' much about our life.

ha! and trout and star said it much more succinctly

I know, just wanted to clarify though. Sometimes the volunteers are the points of contact that parents have, and so naturally vent their frustrations upon.

And most of the time they are parents of children with asd themselves and scrabbling together as much of a local service as they can muster under trying financial circumstances (as well as personal ones)

I tried to volunteer with them once. I found it very difficult to reconcile the service they were training me to deliver with my experience of what families actually need. I found them very parent partnership tbh.

I 'do stuff' for local nas, mainly as its the only show in town.
The central NAS give branches no money at all - it now charges branches for help courses which is why they have dried up.
We are in the NAS only because we have more influence with council, councillors, MP etc as a local NAS branch than we would have as independent group (it was set up before ds came along) - and because we get donations etc a bit more easily
Central NAS have threatened to throw our branch out of NAS for upsetting the council - which is my other bugbear - NAS schools and projects rely on LA funding so there is a massive conflict of interests when local groups want to challenge the council. The central and regional nas don't ask local branches for their views on any local projects either. Its a dysfunctional body.
For now our group has decided we have more clout with the nas name.
The local branches have no real connection to central nas - we are more like a little PTA.
People often expect the branch to run services for them - we do run a youth club and part fund some local activities, we also run a conference - so we have a system of saying if you want x service & there is a need, we will help you set it up, we will let you use some of our funds to get it started, you can use the nas insurance, contacts etc - but you have to set it up yourself. Otherwise it ends up like a pta with 4 people being left to do everything even though we have children of our own. All the services are ones parents have set up themselves.
There is a real benefit in parents coming together locally but you have to think of it like a pta - you will be expected to put something in not just get something out - as otherwise the whole thing collapses.
Politically i object massively to the national nas policies etc so I buy my christmas cards from ambitious about autism

I agree Agnes.

Madwoman - I don't think anyone would blame local volunteers but my concern (and I was a branch secretary) is that the organisation effectively dumps everything at the door of these volunteers and provides virtually nothing in terms of support and up to date information to empower parents.

They should feel like a powerful ally. Instead, they feel like a complicit part of the establishment. The factual content of some of the early bird plus courses is questionable too - and the fact that they are run by LAs is objectionable.

It is part of the system and acts exactly like that which is probably why it has the ear of those in the system. If they can look like they are doing something with NAS support, it makes it look they have listened to parents and children.

I wish they would support ABA a bit more.

I did realy a lot on the info website at the beggining though.

I am not really using the services but I am glad to know that I have a local branch with a weekly social club if I end up homeschooling.

All of my experience at a local level with NAS paid support staff has been jaw droppingly surprising at their lack of understanding of autism.
Starlight - would love to hear more about how you 'couldn't reconcile the service they were training me to deliver with my experience of what families actually need'

It was more the 'work with the establishment' kind of message as opposed to 'challenge their lies and ignorance' kind of message. Which isn't a bad message in itself except that there is a small child being failed as a result.

I tried to contact my local NAS branch a couple of times (via email and leaving phone messages; nobody ever seems to actually pick up the phone). I never heard anything back and won't bother again in the future.

This is who is speaking at my local NAS group uk.sascentre.com/

We don't even have a local NAS group. I'm questioning whether I CBA to keep my membership going, to be honest. I get sick and tired of the pleas for more money, too.