By Rob Edwards (© 2010)
As local authorities (including NHS trusts) begin the process of planning new services under the provisions of the Autism Act, they are often acutely aware of how little they know about autism, or what we need as a community. One of the great things about the new act is that it requires authorities to involve autistic people in the planning and delivery of new services. A group of us in Devon have decided to take advantage of this, and have formed the Neurodiversity Network, which is a project run entirely by autistic people.
The idea of the network is to connect people with autism who may have skills or knowledge in certain areas, to provide help to the autism community as a whole. Two of us are training to be counsellors, so this is one service we want to offer. Another member has a lot of knowledge about benefit law, and could help people with applications. I used to manage an employment agency, so that's something I'd be interested to be involved with. These are just some examples. People with programming knowledge could help build an internet site, for instance. People with mathematical skills could help manage finances, people with creative skills could set up workshops, and so on.
Within just a few weeks of being set up we were invited to meet the NHS commissioner for mental health services in Devon. As a result of that meeting, we will be helping to define the job description of the new leader of autism services in Devon. We will also be helping to plan the new service, and will be able to apply to run parts of the service when it is set up. We have also met with someone from the development committee for the whole of South West England.
We didn't expect to start getting results so quickly, but it's now clear to us that local authorities are very keen to meet with the autism community and involve us in these new services. So I'm writing this article today to ask if there is anyone out there, not only in Devon, but anywhere in the UK, that might be interested in being involved with this kind of project.
If you have any skills that you think might be put to use for the benefit of the autism community as a whole, or maybe just that you would like to share your opinions about services with your local authorities, please get in contact with us at neuronetuk@googlemail.com – we'd really like to hear from you. We are still a fairly small operation, but we'd like to help others around the country to take up the opportunities that the Autism Act provides us with.
The next year is a crucial period in making sure that the Act works for us how we want it to. We have to be at the centre of discussions about how the new money is spent to improve quality of life. We may have had a hard time being heard before, but things can be different now if we get ourselves organised and push for our own agenda, not one that someone else decides for us.