Entry 1 of 2 for today

Well there has been demonstrations and more planned...A meeting organised by the opposition in our council and another organised by a local paper...And our council is being investigated by the audit commission for Scotland about the cuts and the bad spending LOL...BTW Labour ain't been in power on our council for a few years it wasn't just a change at last years elections...To be honest it would appear that the fault in our council being deeply in debt lies at the feet of the lib dems...And one prominent lib dem councillor who used to be in charge of finance i think has stated today in a local paper he should have made cuts in SOCIAL CARE a few years back!!!!...Yes it would have been unpopular he says but it was needed....Well maybe if he ever has the misfortune to have to care for an in poor health elderly relative or a disabled family member he'd realise even without the cuts the provision is CRAP to say the least...Since when were the lib dems about hurting the elderly and disabled in our communitities???? Yes social work has massive overspends but surely that should be POINTING at a NEED rather than wasteful expenditure!!!!! NINE years ago there were proposals started to close 2 out of the 4 stand alone special needs schools here...Now 1 of those schools was for SEVERELY disabled who couldn't even cope in a 'normal' SEN school...Well guess what it's NOT CLOSED as it is NEEDED...Out of the other 3 the one that M was at originally was earmarked for closure and as i said last week it is now being demolished...BUT it has NOT closed...It has been moved temporarily into a primary school that was closed a couple of years ago...They had to start taking in P1 pupils 2 years ago due to lack of places in the other 2 SEN schools and the SEN bases being full or unsuitable...So where it was they are now building a mainstream school with a SEN school also in the same grounds...So that kind of points out that we have a heck of a lot of youngsters in the city who have some kind of SEN who also require respite of some description....I also still haven't been informed of anything that is supposed to now happen to G about being moved to adult services as he is now 18...So cutbacks in social care are essential YEAH RIGHT I DON'T THINK SO MR COUNCILLOR...A LACK of respite provision could be considered a form of abuse according to the conference i was at on thurs...I really can see our council being taken to court over a lot of this...Cut the actual councillors fecking wages, cut their expenses payments and don't keep picking on the disadvantaged...Oh and whilst they're at it why are drug addicts and alcoholics  still going to get their provision, they're not being cutback nearly as much!!!!!...WTF am sorry i do have an auntie who is an alcoholic but it is self inflicted...NO-ONE ASKS to have some kind of disability or serious long term illness...They should come FIRST and the onus of care shouldn't fall completely back onto the families like our council now want...My sons both have a lifelong disability and ok yes they are becoming more capable than i ever dreamt off... Yes G is going to university in sept and am extremely proud of that achievement....But he still can't tie his shoelaces, remember to feed himself, remember to take his meds, remember to wash himself or do everyday taken for granted tasks without having to be reminded or reshown every few weeks how to do them...Also i am fully aware of the fact that no matter how much the progress they can regress equally as quickly at any point in time.

And my wee rant above takes me nicely into the conference i was at on thurs :o) ...And perhaps some of our councillors should have been invited along free of charge to see exactly what was said at the conference...The conference was organised by the North East of Scotland Child Protection Committee...It was called 'Securing a Protective Enviroment for Children and Young People with Disabilities'. And funnily enough autism seemed to wander into both the opening address and the keynote speech as well as 2 of the workshops being about those with ASD...Our Chief Constable doesn't like the mosquito BTW so is in favour with the Children Commissioner for Scotland at the mo LOL...She did the opening address...And she mentioned that and also said that she had been working with a young woman with cerebral palsy recently...The mosquito device sent her bananas and she didn't understand why she felt so ill for so long...But the people who make it allegedly contacted disability groups for their opinion...Specifically some autism groups...I know for a fact that it would send M nuts and G would go bananas but G wouldn't say he was 'ill' he'd just muddle on <sigh> Anyways i digress as usual LOL...This conference wasn't just about what people normally think of when they think of child protection and abuse...Abuse doesn't just have to mean physical abuse or sexual abuse...Those with disabilities abuse can be in many forms...A lack of the proper education methods that many of them need is abuse...A lack of respite care for the families is ause not just to the families but to the disabled child...A lack of facilities and adaptations is abuse...Am not a great lover of all the human rights acts as such mainly because they seem to be abused all the time by those who commit a crime or do bad things in our society...But there are laws in place about rights of the child and that doesn't mean that children can't be punished or let free to roam the streets and damage property and people...There are rights in law for disabled children and they are constantly being broken...Sometimes unwittingly being broken due to over officious health & safety legislation...Like how bluddy stupid is it that a teacher or helper in a school can't take a child with a disability to say the toilet because they're not allowed to touch a child under H&S rules...Or they can't help a disabled child in a wheelchair down say 3 steps because of same rules!!!!...So a parent has to be called into school to do it instead...Which then embarasses the child or teenager...Carers coming into the home can't do X,Y or Z because of same over officious legislation which makes the whole point of having a paid carer totally useless...Actually i could fill this journal for the next month in things that were pointed out and brought up at the conference but i won't...We had to go to 2 workshops and funnily enough 2 out of the 6 were about autism so guess which ones i went to LOL...Another parent from M's school was also at the conference and she got a heck of a lot out of the morning workshop...So much so that she went and spoke to M's head teacher who was also there and she is going to liaise with that other place and get things put in place for her daughter :o) ...M's school does do these things to an extent but not as in depth as that place and his school are more than willing to do whatever is needed :o) That first workshop we were at concerned in the main something called person centred planning and transitions...If transitions aren't done specifically catering towards the childs actual needs then that really is a type of abuse...After all just because you have a disability doesn't mean that you have no rights...It doesn't mean that your opinion, however old you may be, shouldn't be considered...It doesn't mean that professionals who think they know better should make ALL the decisions...It also doesn't mean that so called professionals shouldn't take into account the parent and family members opinions...Too often both parents and the childs opinions are dismissed wholesale by the professionals...The workshop in the afternoon was about risks and protective factors for children with ASD...One very interesting point made by the person running the workshop was about children like G...Children who are highly intelligent academically who then get dismissed because it is PRESUMED they will know what abuse is and if it is happening...And that they are capable of TELLING someone they are being abused...But that is not so...Just because they are highly intelligent and capable academically doesn't mean they have social awareness...This is what can and does confuse people about many with ASD...It is a highly complex and wide ranging disability that confuses 'normal' people a heck of a lot...High academic ability doesn't equate to social ability in those with ASD like it does with 'normal' people...Am afraid i kept making ironic laughing noises throughout her discussion and i did speak up as well...When she said that a lack of respite can be a form of abuse or lead to abuse i piped up that i have never had overnight respite at all...I also pointed out that the last time i had a real break was when i was in hospital having my gall bladder out...And that although social work put in a carer for a couple of hours every evening that it was mainly left to K to look after them...Now that was abuse and she said that...K was only 17 at the time and social work didn't put anyone in in the morning to help her get them ready for school or even anyone in to help her get them to go to bed nor did they put them into somewhere overnight...Unfortunately many of the pointer signs of physical or sexual abuse are normal autistic traits so it can be extremely hard to know if they are being abused...I remember too well G being bullied at school...Now much of his behaviour was normal for him but in a regular child it would have pointed to some problem...You also have the added factor that many with ASD because THEY KNOW something is happening they PRESUME that everyone else knows as well without having to be told...As am sure i;ve said before on here if i had just 1p for each time i have said to my lads just because they know doesn't mean i know what they know i would be a very rich woman...After the workshops there was a Q&A session with the professor who did the keynote speech, the childrens commissoner and the workshop facilitators...But only 2 questions were asked....One being very pertinent and am hoping that she writes to the childrens commissoner and gets her to investigate as well...She asked that with our council cutbacks in respite and social care that could lead to inadvertant abuse by parents and is there anything that the government can do about it under the rights of the child...See if more and more onus is put on the families to care for the disabled child then family members will get worn out and tired...Which could lead to them snapping...The person that asked that her child has multiple disabilities and with the cutbacks could end up with no-where to go once she finishes school (which is soon) with no respite for her parents and her mother having to give up her job to be with her...This girl CANNOT be left alone...Her care hours have been cut so she is going to end up unable to go to clubs she has started to try and integrate with others...DLA only goes so far in paying for care...She's a teenager and wants to do regular teenage stuff...She loves having her hair coloured all different colours and wants to go shopping with someone who is closer in age to her and not her mum...Or go to discos without her mum in tow...The childrens commissoner took note of what was said and seemed rather perturbed at what these cutbacks are doing here...She did say we need to lobby to get changes done but we are lobbying and it's not working...It does need people higher up to stop this happening...Oh i introduced myself to the childrens commissoner as she has met K a few times...And she did know who i was on about when i said i believed she knew my daughter LOL...Yes K from the youth parliament has some good ideas and is very articulate at getting her poitn across according to the children commissoner LOL...It was one of the best and most informative conferences i have ever been to...But parents weren't actually asked along at first...It had to be pointed out to the organisers that parents needed a voice at the conference too and not just professionals...See therein lies a problem...All these conferences are organised by professionals for professionals and they always forget parents...The keynote speech i will talk about another day as it was very interesting but quite complex and really we all wondered how he was going to link it to the theme but he did kind of :o)