North Wales Assembly Member and Chair of the Cross Party Autism Group, Mark Isherwood, spoke yesterday at North Wales Integrated Autism Service’s first Wrexham Community Autism Support Event, calling for the communication needs of autistic people to be recognised.
Mr Isherwood referred to last month’s Cross Party Autism Group meeting in Glyndwr University, Wrexham, at which the Integrated Autism Service (IAS) explained that it was not replacing existing services, and spoke of emails he has received from autistic people since who are concerned their communication needs are not being considered.
Mr Isherwood said:
“Attendees were informed that following a referral, support could be provided in the form of information and advice and, in some instances, direct support.
“Attendees also emphasised that failure by those providing public services for autistic people to first give careful consideration to the communication environment and the autistic person’s communication needs can cause confusion for the autistic person and escalate their anxiety.
“Only yesterday, I received emails from Autistic people in North Wales which included comments such as:
-‘A meeting to ensure an agreed written protocol of what will happen is very important because he will fully know what to expect and therefore this will partially reduce his level of anxiety.’
-‘We want the wider issues of discrimination and failure to meet the Equality Duty to be formally addressed in respect of Patients on the Autism Spectrum and with difficulties in social interaction and communication. Policy, practice and staff training and development are still not addressing the many very poor experiences that autistic patients experience when they use public health services.’
-‘I thought it would be a face to face meeting. I really find the phone difficult, both from a language processing point of view, anxiety, and through sensory/hyperacuity difficulties. Unfortunately, putting the responsibility to make the call myself has been too much, as I'm sitting with the phone in hand but can't even think how to start the conversation.’
-‘I attended the Flintshire IAS community event this morning. I only found out about their existence due to them being mentioned on a general face book post. I asked who should be sign posting us to IAS as no one I had come into contact with professionally had informed me of their existence.’
“Responding in the Assembly Chamber to last week’s Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, on ‘The Autism Updated Delivery Plan and Autism Code of Practice’, I highlighted the need to establish the communication needs of autistic people first and quoted a constituent who had written to me the previous weekend stating “Many of us struggle with meeting strangers, especially in alien places. We struggle to communicate our needs effectively by phone, in writing and e-mail. We have been unable to obtain effective advocacy on our and our children's behalves despite us detailing our processing difficulties. It often takes us a long time to process information verbally or in writing without support to understand and interpret correctly, despite many of us appearing very articulate”.
“Referring to the Autism (Wales) Bill, I referred to the statement by the National Autistic Society that a code of practice alone will not go far enough to address the needs of the autistic community - where the London School of Economics warned in its 2017 'The Autism Dividend: Reaping the Rewards of Better Investment' report that, without legislation, there would be little ability to require public bodies to implement Government initiatives in full and it doesn't provide statutory permanence in a way that an Autism Act would.
He added: “The Equality Act 2010, which identifies Autism as a disability, requires that ‘service providers must think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people’. As it says ‘in doing this’, it is a good idea to consider the range of disabilities that your actual or potential service users might have. You should not wait until a disabled person experiences difficulties using a service”.
“When dealing with an autistic person, the onus is therefore on the service provider to give careful consideration to the autistic person’s communication needs. A failure to do so can escalate the autistic person’s anxiety and behaviour.
“In order for people with autism to communicate effectively, there must be: early identification of their needs; the acquisition of comprehensive background information about the individual; careful consideration given to the communication environment; appropriate preparation of the individual for what is expected, and a planned and flexible approach taken.
“Consideration must be given not just to the types of questions asked, but also to the manner of how this is done. Timings of information-giving, changes to scheduling and environmental factors (such as busy buildings) are all likely to affect the overall quality of the information a person provides.
He added: “The Autistic and Autism Communities are therefore looking to the Integrated Autism Service to champion a social model approach which avoids medical model language, and engages with Autistic people and their families/carers in order to tackle the discrimination faced by autistic people.
“This re-enforces the importance of the role played by the North Wales Integrated Autism Service as it identifies both Autistic-led areas of concern, and how we can work together to begin tackling them.”