Social Workers - Do you have one? How do they help?

[jackny]

Hi

This is probably a really stupid question but I am going to ask it anyway! My DS was diagnosed with Aspergers/HFA just over a month ago and I am starting to look for sources of help for him. I have started to attend an 'Opportunity Playgroup' and everyone there was talking about their Social Worker. I am not sure how a Social Worker could assist (thought they were primarily involved in child protection issues)or how to get one or indeed if I really want one!

Any thoughts on this would be welcome - I am feel completely overwhelmed with reading material on ASD but I am just worried that I am missing out some available help.

ditto Leonie, I was offered the services of (student) SW but my HV deftly told them to back off - I find it extremely hard to envision a situation where I would ask them for anything.

Well it depends what help you and your child need. SW are the gatekeepers for some of the more specialised services such as respite and sn (rare as hens teeth) play scheme places for older children in other words services that support the carer by supporting the child. The right SW can chase up things (services/ equipment) if you are not able do it for your child. There is usually a disabled childrens team.
We have just had an initial assessment and ds is 10 and will always need care. We have an assigned sw for the assessment but will loose him once it is complete and fall onto the duty SW. This has become essential due to life threatening illness - so getting ds used to other carers is expedient. In this situation they have been good if much too slow! We hope to get direct payments to employ a carer a couple of hours a week to continue with ds favorite activities and occassional overnight respite.
It really depends what sort of help your looking for. Specialist autism support or therapeutic parenting support is not SS forte (IMHO) The NAS run courses for parents of newly diagnosed children, and there may be sn support groups run by the local hv team or parent carer group. There may be an autism resource or team who can help. The local asd parent group can be a good starting point with local knowledge of inclusive schools and clubs etc. -HTH

only if you think you qualify for respite or dps. otherwise, no requirement.

dd2 is 6 with cp. no sw, and can't ever see us using one tbh. she's 'not disabled enough' to qualify for the children with disabilities team (despite high rate dla since mos lol).

odd bunch.

Well put madwomanintheattic.
SS do not usually get involved (dispite severe disability requiring life long care) until there is a major crisis - and even then they often do not.

I wouldn't want to go near them.

We get our respite and sn playschemes other ways! There may be local charities that will run things like this that you don't need a sw for, I think it would be worth hunting around for that first. Some I do have to pay for, but it is reasonable (£12 for whole day, 1:1 care), a lot is free (horseriding, holiday club).

I've met some reasonable ones in my day: never needed to use them much but wouldn't hesitate if I did see the need. My friend who had terminal cancer got some help off them afaik.

SWs come in different flavours. The Child Protection sort will be a completely separate team to the Children with Disabilities sort. They don't automatically come in looking for reasons to take your kids away. DD1's SW has never met her, let alone come to our home. It's more convenient to her to meet at school at statement review time etc. Bluntly, if a SW is involved with a healthy NT child and that child dies, the SW will be blamed/investigated. IF a child with SN dies, people say "oh how tragic. I expect it's a blessing though".... .

So, the sort we are talking about are basically gatekeepers for respite budget. They are quite good at finding ways of not spending this, by putting you in touch with charities etc. This can be genuinely useful but you could do it yourself probably. They do also sometimes come up with actual cash.

I imagine your chances of getting anything out of them with an Aspergers/HFA diagnosis are slim. Though it's a bit of a game and you may find that being on the books for a while and failing to benefit from all their half-baked alternatives to proper support will eventually mean they grudgingly come up with a few hours' a week of something called Direct Payments - money which you can use to pay for respite/care. Also they have their own OT people, and if you need any home adaptations in future (DD1 chews radiators so they've put rad covers in our house) that's where you get them.

You should appear vaguely on their radar once you get a diagnosis because health are supposed to share info with other services. However, they keep a quasi-official list of "disabled children" which ASD is rarely sufficient to get you onto on its own. You'll have phone up to formally request "an assessment". Processes vary for this but this should include both info about your child's needs and other family members, inc your own. Ask on the phone what the local jargon is and make sure you are getting all the family needs assessed, it's now your legal right as partial assessments have historically been used to dodge proper provision.

Yes we have one via the children with Disabilities team and she is about the only prof involved in our ds care who actually does what she says she will do. I like her.

East Berks and I am NEVER moving!

We are pretty lucky. I found out about most of the stuff via the local Aiming High for Disabled children and a local SN dialogue group. I do wonder if a lot of the time the services are available, but it's finding out about them - the information isn't passed on to the parents.

I do spend a lot of time googling!

I agree that you have to find out everything for yourself. There is a lot out there but often it is hard to find it.
I do not know much about it but the carers equal oportunities act ( basically carers are entitled to a life!!!) along with the aiming high for disabled children consultation may start to change availability of services. At present there are no afterschool clubs at sn school but perhaps in the future wrap around care may extend to sn children too. In our area HFASD would not be considered a disability although that is changing too.

we've only had our SW for a few months but she is very lovely and helpful. she is only newly qualified tho (we were one of her first cases) so that may change!