A different Drummer because I am Unique!

All these high profile campaigners are they doing anything worth while? Are they raising awareness for the right services or with the right people?

Yes, the profile of Autism has risen quite a lot, over the last few years, we have all done our part and it got confirmed for us last year that 1 in 100 children are on the Autistic Spectrum.. Yes more campaigns, all dedicated to Autism Awareness, all high profile, whilst our National Spokesmen Charity slept through it all or jumped on the bandwagon, by nodding its head or distancing itself away from anything that wasn't going to bring its highly paid workers more money.

Lets get REAL and look at this properly - Autism Effects each child differently - We can not have a 'National Curriculum' of care or education - Because when it comes to Autism - One size doesn't fit all.  We need to stop worrying about 'National' campaigns and start worrying about how each local authority meets the needs of our children.

I live in Bangor, North Wales, What good is an ASD specific school in London for MY child? What good is one in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff or even Conwy for mine? I need to start working in my locality and get services my child needs locally...  We need services in each and every town and village in the UK.
The only way we are going to get these services is when Joe Public is made aware that 'Sooner or later Autism is going to catch up to them and theirs'  time for them to be aware of the lack of services locally and get prepared for when Autism comes knocking on their door.

We need the public and our local council on ourside. The government, of course, needs to be made aware, and they need to provide the councils with the money, but until we get local councils to realise there is a problem and more needs to be done, they won't need the money from the government!

I hear some of these 'celeb' campaigners on the TV, all despairing about the lack of facilities, and rightly so, but NO-ONE ever comes out and says what they actually need or want!

Autism is NOT a fashion accessory , Autism is about real people with real needs. We need to identify what the needs are first, What we need is not self promotion by our campaigners, but people to identify what the local ASDs need in each area to collate all the information together and then campaign for services each area needs to meet the needs...

Forget Nationally, start work locally!

My Child's is Unique, and her Autism affects her in a HER way, not some Trendy fashionable where one size will fit all!

Sheena.