Monday, 26 January 2009
Better Services For Autistic People!
This is fantastic news - Conservative MP Cheryl Gillan is seeking to pass a law to improve local authority support for people with autism. She introduced the bill on Wednesday 21st January, 2009. It will require councils to collect information on the number of autistic children and adults within their area, in order to co-ordinate appropriate services and support. The bill needs the support of 100 MPs to move forward to a second reading next month.
Please contact your local MP and make him or her understand the importance of supporting this bill. It is wonderful that an MP is doing something useful to help this cause, don't let this opportunity slip through our fingers! Autism is such a complicated disability, not only because it affects how sufferers interact with the world around them, but because it can be difficult to define the symptoms of the condition. Autism is described as a combination of the following:
- difficulty with social communication,
- difficulty with social interaction,
- dificulty with social imagination.
This makes the condition difficult to diagnose, as the behaviours can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. And, whether diagnosed or not, the struggle to make sense of the world around can make those affected by autism very frustrated and anxious. Which is all the more reason why, once someone has a diagnosis, they should have access to as much support as they need from their local authority.
So, please, contact your MP about this. You should be able to find out contact details from www.parliament.uk.
In other news, my laptop stil isn't completely better, but is usable. My email inbox is scarily full, though, so I'm not looking forward to grappling with that. Sorry if you've emailed me and not had a reply. It will take a while, but I'll eventually respond to everyone who's emailed over the last month!
