Advocating, hmmmmm

Well, yes, there is advocating and advocating. I have tried a number of times to achieve getting things that we need as a family and have discovered that basically I don’t really have the skills necessary to do SOME types of advocating, but I do have others.

For example, I could ask for medical help for Johnathan, no problem. And I would stay with him in hospital. But I couldn’t get them to believe he was autistic until he was five years old and it was written in the files by CAMHS. Children with autism have different brain patterns to most people and these are formed IN THE WOMB, so a person is autistic for a reason.

When it was time to send Johnathan to school, Kevin went to fill out the application in the school he was meant to attend. But when he had seen around the school and spoken to the head, he realised that this was not the school suitable for Johnathan’s needs.

Kevin and I went to see the head of the nursery and the keyworker Johnathan would talk to in order to figure out how we were going to advocate to get him into a school that would suit him. The head said that she hoped we didn’t mind but she had spoken to her friend who was the head of a school she felt was suitable for Johnathan and had explained our situation and asked if she would be willing to take him if he liked the place and she was.

So I took Johnathan to the school after he had finished in nursery and we met the head, the deputy, the teacher and saw ALL ROUND THE SCHOOL. At one point the cleaner put a noisy vacuum on and I could see his body tensing up as he started to panic at the level of noise. The head took his hand and asked the cleaner to turn it off and I could see he trusted her and the anxiety had receded so we did not experience one of his meltdowns and I knew that was the school for him.

TREASURE

Sometimes when I know I HAVE to advocate for a family member, someone might pave the way for me, and that’s where you need to see the blessing they are for having done so.