Charities criticise new plans, described as a ‘shadow of the reform needed’ with the care system ‘on the precipice’
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/04/halving-social-care-workforce-funding-in-england-an-insult-ministers-told?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR2jv7sF8sQscnB93ml9wYBLdVLd5bP2dOt4FeYMYFlyu4v6L_cMqbUInPg
The National Autism Society have issued this statement in light of this announcement:
"This announcement is yet another backwards step in fixing the social care crisis. The system has been in a dire state for years, made worse by the pandemic, and now with a workforce facing overwhelming cost of living pressures.
Our research found that 71% of autistic adults don't get the care they need. Without support their lives get harder and harder, and too many end up being admitted to a mental health hospital.
To create a society that truly works for autistic people, Government must honour its promises to reform social care. This can’t come soon enough."
I'll add a comment of my own. Since 2019 I have been looking closely at the help and support available to autistic people in this country. What I have discovered is grim indeed. There are also indications that the criteria for referral are to be "toughened up." Rather than expand resources, the attitude is to retrench whilst cutting the numbers of those being diagnosed. Basically, people will be driven to despair and breakdown before 'help' of the most minimal kind will be offered. People will have been pushed into a condition from which return will be well night impossible (the toll on mental and physical health is immense). Many people can have little idea of the suffering this involves, not least the destruction of hope that the future will be any different from a miserable present of constant anxiety.
I hope we are not entering an age of austerity and retrenchment stalked by a hideous social Darwinism (conscious or otherwise), an age in which those who can take of themselves will do so and those in need of help will be cast aside. Health/survival correlated to wealth. I'm not going that way.
