I was excited to open the post today and find my article about caring breaks in Your Autism magazine, published by the National Autistic Society. I’ve tried to highlight in the article the lack of care options and funding for those with autistic children and young people and other additional needs. Carers often feel forgotten, isolated and lonely. Many report that their own mental health is affected as well as their finances, and work opportunities are more limited.

Our son is now 19, but this doesn’t mean that getting breaks has become any easier, in fact it is now harder. Jack is autistic and has two anxiety disorders, as well as other comorbidities (scary word, it just means two or more conditions or diseases at a time). Whereas Jack was able to travel extensively with support when he was younger, since his early teens anxiety has made this increasingly challenging, and now he is unable to travel more than a few minutes from home, walking or in our car. Unfortunately  his issues, and our lack of family who can support, mean that not only can he not go on holiday but  we can’t get away for breaks without him either, for longer than a few hours.

Finding the right mental health support for Jack is critical to help him overcome his anxiety, and finally we have found a therapist who can support him, (we are still waiting on funding). We have found support for a few hours at a time, and are hoping to build this up as Jack feels better, and gets used to us being away for longer periods. In the meantime we have had to be creative, and the article gives a few ideas as to how others might build in some respite time in similar ways, and achieve small breaks at least. There are also some initiatives which, providing more support, and some with tailor made properties, allow families to have breaks together, such as spectrum-holidays.com and kolokodirect.com