Autism Community & COVID-19
Firstly, Massive shout out to our funding partners for standing with us through your financial contributions towards our Autism Care- Giver Mentoring Scheme. Your funding has facilitated the provision of mentoring packages for 36 more Sussex families during this COVID-19 pandemic. Thank You!
Firstly, Massive shout out to our funding partners for standing with us through your financial contributions towards our Autism Care- Giver Mentoring Scheme. Your funding has facilitated the provision of mentoring packages for 36 more Sussex families during this COVID-19 pandemic. Thank You!
Background
COVID-19 caused lock-down and lockdown has broken all autistic rules: (routines, consistency & respite taken away). School and other recreational activities have also been discontinued. To someone with autism this is too much to process simultaneously, especially without prior repeated notice. Some even have physical pain as a result. Restricted access to routine community spaces and the confinement of home environment causes them great anxiety and stress which manifests in behaviour that challenges Care-Givers and siblings in a variety of ways to varied depths as dictated by various factors. Care-givers and siblings get stressed out. Parents often report extreme desperation:- feeling defeated, alone, anxious, depressed, let down, impatient and at the end of their tether to say the least. Our experience of working with such families has reveal a severe gap of knowledge and skills to decode the communication embedded in autistic behaviour, resulting in deterioration of mental health for both the Care Giver and the Cared –For ( autistic person) This is true across all ages of autism sufferers. This is where we come in.
What is the problem?
The reality is that when 1 family member is autistic, how they cope implicates on the rest of the family. Usually families have respite from paid staff, school and or extended family members and or friends which currently is unavailable. Instead, this season of COVID-19; characterized by family isolation & social distancing, Parents and Carers are having real struggle to contain autistic behaviours. Rapid change of routines, lack of continuity, boredom for some autistic individuals as well as limited / restricted access to their routine community spaces has triggered lasting high levels of anxiety, frustration, desperation and stress for Care - Givers due to souring autistic behaviours and meltdowns behind closed doors.
It is therefore safe to say that the current living guidelines have exacerbated mental ill health in the autism community with very little helpful support accessible to them. According to our experience of working with such families, the gap in knowledge & skills to link sensory dysfunction pointers to behavioural manifestations often results in an overwhelmed autistic person offloading on the Care-Giver or sibling who unknowingly, in turn, further stresses the sufferer, creating a cycle of emotional wreckage.......You Are Not Alone........ This is where we come in.......
What is our Response?
Our project empowers families to deal with situations as they present without necessarily emotionally falling apart themselves.
Our service provides professional bespoke in-depth mentoring sessions to families of autistic/ Sensory Processing dysfunction individuals, currently struggling to cope with lock-down implications i.e. community access restrictions and other unusual behaviours required to fulfil COVID-19 safety guidelines, abruptly disrupting routine & continuity which usually renders some much needed predictability to their day to day lives-: severely implicating on behaviour.
Are you an autism Care Giver? or Are you an autistic young person or adult? If you have been, or are you currently experiencing any of this? For support, please get intouch with us by filling our contact form: Contact form |
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