This week, ARGH, Aurora Autistic Consulting, Felicity Goodhall, AMASE and SEMA wrote a joint letter to Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport Marie Todd.
Here is the full letter:
Dear Minister Todd,
Closure of Autism Assessment Pathways Across Scotland
We are writing to you to express our grave concerns over the recent announcements proposing the closure of Autism Assessment Pathways across various local authorities including Aberdeenshire, Angus, and Forth Valley. There is also considerable apprehension that Edinburgh and Fife are proposing to close their pathways and moving all related assessments to third sector and/or mental health services. Referrals on current pathways have been stopped. We are also disturbed that this is a growing trend across Scotland, with other areas following the lead to reduce budgets without consideration of the cost to individuals’ wellbeing or ongoing impacts to other services.
An Integrated Joint Board meeting this week in Aberdeenshire made the decision to withdraw from the wider pan-Grampian service. Next month they will vote on proposed funding for a smaller in-house Aberdeenshire service. We are extremely worried that this will endanger the Moray and Aberdeen City services. We have a number of concerns with this proposal including but not limited to:
· Increased wait times on top of what is already an unacceptable delay
· A break in service while a new pathway is established
· Whether self-referral will still be accepted
· Whether those on the current waitlist will have their place on current wait list transferred over
· Whether it will be as Neuroaffirming as the current service
· What the input from the local Autistic community will be
A large number of people have expressed deep distress at the proposed cuts and changes to services. The negative impact of this on our already vulnerable community cannot be overstated.
The integrated impact assessment produced by Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership severely underestimates the risk to our community. There is no recognition that racialised and other minoritised groups are at disproportionate risk. There is no recognition of the additional strain this will put on services supporting disordered eating, eating disorders, alcohol and drug use. We strongly feel that the impact this will have on children has not been fully realised. The suggestions for mitigating the impact of this decision are wilfully misguided. The local third sector is already under funded, understaffed, under trained, and most of the time is not appropriate for or set up to meet Autistic needs.
The existing mental health crisis within the Autistic and ADHD communities is worsening significantly because of this failure. Mental health services are already beyond capacity and shifting Autism and ADHD pathways over will be actively dangerous to our community. Many Autistic people have been deeply traumatised by mental health services. As a result of the failure of mental health services to provide adequate and neuro-affirming support we anticipate there will be increased numbers of Autistic and ADHD people falling into crisis. This could see us inappropriately criminalised; caught in the mental health system; and losing tenancies and income. This will lead to increased pressure on social housing and institutional settings, and further significant strain on other existing services.
If people cannot access assessment and diagnosis, it makes it much harder to access services at the point of prevention rather than extreme crisis. It makes it much harder for Autistic people and those with ADHD to access our rights in education, work, and in the local community. It makes it much harder for us to be believed by friends and family that we are Autistic let alone officialdom. It makes it much harder to assess actual needs and plan accordingly. We are already hearing stories about people having their applications for ADP, SDS, and social care being turned down as they do not have a diagnosis. This affects access to a range of support services. Those that are seeking employment or wish to go into Higher education will also have a harder time accessing Access to Work services and Disabled Students allowance: all these create a significant barrier that is unacceptable in a Scotland that wishes to see equity across the population.
These proposals to cut fundamental services underscore the need for adequate resourcing and accountability for assessment, diagnosis, support, and related services across Scotland. It also highlights the dangers of making decisions about minority communities without robust collaboration and co-production.
We urgently request a meeting to discuss the crisis our community is facing with these closures, seek your help in applying pressure on local authorities to meet the needs of Autistic people, and discuss how we can all work together to ensure we are not placed in this vulnerable position where Autistic lives are at risk again.
We look forward to your response,
Marion McLaughlin, Aurora Autistic Consulting
Felicity Goodhall
Sofia Farzana, Scottish Ethnic Minority Autistics CIC
Kabie Brook, Autism Rights Group Highland
Fergus Murray, Autistic Mutual Aid Society Edinburgh
You can sign the petition here.
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