Mentoring or other support for ASD teen getting into work or just life?

[notaflyingmonkey]

So many of the agencies that I have looked at are really set up for supporting children and their families through DX, etc. But DS(18) really needs support in getting into work, or even just mentoring on how to better navigate the world as a young adult with Autism.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I wish there was some kind of support there doesn't seem to be any. Ds is 15 and recently diagnosed. We have been unable to access any post diagnosis support and he is also struggling to think about the next step. He hates his school so we are making the decision for him that he needs to move to a different sixth form.

I'm actually amazed at how little support there is. I'm not sure about your Ds but ours is totally isolated. I find it very frustrating that autism is a life long neurodevelopmemtal condition but they give you a diagnosis say goodbye and offer nothing. Getting jobs, going to interviews or uni etc is incredibly difficult when you struggle to interact and communicate with those around you.

Ditto. I have 2 of them & there is literally nothing post dx.

My 13yo got a private diagnosis in the summer and we were told to go to a psychologist for anxiet and look on NAS website for more info.
As a family we are pretty broken tbh

My DS participated in an internship scheme where Mencap arranged and supported him into work. I cannot speak highly enough of the support he received.

We are in London and I do not know if it is nationwide, but definitely worth a try. Schemes like this are desperately needed.

Sorry, that reply was to the OP.

I agree there is very little support out there. My DS was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD at 4 and is now over 18. We have been through the mill along the way including DS being excluded from school for things which were entirely to do with his additional needs.and tbh the most useful support we have received is the Mencap support. We accessed it through the young peoples employment team at the local council but it took a bit of pushing.

DS has pretty much always had a statement and now an EHCP, but they mean very little in real terms.

One other thing we tried which worked well was a voluntary job in an Oxfam bookshop for two hours in an evening twice a week. The people there were lovely and very inclusive and appeared to have a good understanding of SEND. They let him work behind the scenes in a quiet environment sorting and pricing books and he worked there for about six months.

@Punxsutawney my DS is also pretty much totally isolated, but I am not sure it bothers him that much. Along the way there have been a couple of boys who were also on the spectrum who would have been friends but he really could not be bothered to sustain an engagement with the even with me and their mums facilitating.

I do worry terribly about what will happened to DS when I am gone as he is a very vulnerable adult. My attention atm is focussed n trying to get him PIP, but as he is reasonably intelligent and articulate I suspect we will fail.

What they will not see of course is that he can be influenced by anybody, has no idea of the value of money, though he likes shopping, and is absolutely ripe for exploitation. If he was living somewhere and say there was a water leak or the fuses blew, he would simply live with it and would not be able to even begin how to work out how to find someone to get them mended.

Have you tried Social Services?

My son is 24 and has just left college. He has a social worker and the SW introduced him to a colleague who deals with employment support. She is fantastic. She helps DS with job applications and CV, practises interview skills with him, goes with him to interviews and is arranging some voluntary work for him in the new year.

Thank you all for your responses. Jones our boys sound very similar.

I will try Mencap and see if they can offer any help.

Just on the off-chance that you're in the South Downs area, @notaflyingmonkey, have you considered applying to the YMCA's Positive Placements scheme? It's targeted more at NEETs and those who didn't flourish or achieve highly in the school system, but my ASD DD was accepted onto it with open arms.

She was assigned a volunteer mentor for a full year, who gradually built her practical skills and critical self-evaluation ability up before beginning to identify potential job opportunities for her including an apprenticeship in her dream job - she wasn't quite ready for it at that point, but the business owner kindly gave her a half-day's one-to-one training in the basic skills associated with the job so she'd have something relevant to add onto her CV.

Although the mentor had never worked with anybody on the autism spectrum before, he went to a lot of trouble to familiarise himself with the condition in general, and liaised regularly with me and DH to understand how our DD expressed it through her behaviour. He encouraged her to take up a new hobby to help improve her hand-to-eye co-ordination, and she flourished at that hobby and has kept it up ever since.

He couldn't find an appropriate social group for her to join, but I really couldn't fault him for his patience and the constant encouragement he gave DD. He even accompanied her to a couple of apprenticeship fairs locally to give her moral support. Although nothing came of that, she has since applied for several apprentice roles in her dream job and even made it to interview twice since she completed the scheme, and the YMCA scheme co-ordinator was more than happy to provide a reference for her.

Even if you're not in the South Downs area, your local YMCA organisation might offer something similar, so it may be worth your while checking them out? Fingers crossed for you and your DS.

Thanks for taking the time to respond @FoulMouthedMotherFigure. I've checked and there seems to be a branch available to us in Surrey, I will drop them an email.