Caught the end of an interview with a UK politician who was giving his esteemed views on what was holding the country back and he specifically mentioned AUTISM…. That’s right along with Tariffs, energy costs, international conflicts, planning delays and the impacts of climate change, the cost of benefits, he specifically mentioned AUTISM….. He quoted the number of children currently diagnosed with autism and argued that it was clearly too high, and the rising numbers didn’t make any sense. He added that we weren’t seeing the same rapidly rising numbers in Adults…. And how far too many young people diagnosed with autism don’t get a job after they leave school, he argued reliance on benefits was a root cause of this. So if you cut the benefits available, more young people will enter (forced back into) the workforce. He concluded that the country needed to go back to some good old parenting with a sprinkling of tough welfare love. Welfare reform will over time stem the tidal wave of autism while reducing the tax burden on businesses and hard working taxpayers.
I keep hearing this argument more and more in 2025. Similar arguments are being directed towards a range of mental health and disability areas. Tough love will work and reduce the tax burden. One Government Minister even likened reducing disability benefits to cutting a child’s pocket money and encouraging them to get a Saturday job. Let’s not forget, Ministers usually closely stick to a script pre agreed by those at the highest levels of the Government. Those in charge don’t care or they are completely out of touch with the reality faced by millions they are supposed to be representing.
The reason adult autism rates are not rising is down to a couple of key issues. At the age of 18 autism support largely stops in the UK. Clinicians providing Child Autism Services do not have an equivalent adult service to hand an 18 year old on to. As a result large numbers simply drop off the system as adults. Relatively few General Practitioners (Family Doctors) have detailed autism training and it’s hard for them to make an assessment on the basis of a 3 or 5 minute standard length Doctor Appointment. As a clinician who worked with Hawklad explained to me, if an adult approaches a GP with an autism related issue, the busy GP will have little time to make an accurate assessment and anyway they won’t have any adult services to refer on to. So far too often GPs just end up offering some leaflets on mindfulness and possibly a course of Anti Depressants or sleeping medication.
That’s assuming that GPs are actually approached in the first place.
At school Hawklad was expected to put his hand up to get help with reading, or if he was feeling uncomfortable or struggling. But that meant announcing to his classmates that he couldn’t read something or having to publicly announce he was feeling uncomfortable, that was never going to happen. We might be in 2025 but we live in a world where way too many people have closed minds and the media still paint with inaccurate and harmful stereotypes. Autistic children still get bullied and pointed at in the school setting. Not only by children, sadly by parents as well. So Hawklad never put his hand up and the teachers assumed he was ok, the end result, he never got the classroom help he badly needed. Years later, he still won’t put up his hand with strangers or people he doesn’t trust. Even if he’s struggling, he is unlikely to call a GP for help.
2025 and sadly it’s the same old story.
A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. 
It’s the same with my son. He hates to be seen as different and would rather suffer than ask for help because he only trusts me.
LikeLike
Trust is the key, it can’t be forced.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙁
LikeLike
🙏
LikeLike
And think of how many families – and adults – are in this situation. If the pols even acknowledged the problem and apologized for not having the resources, instead of pushing this cruel diagnosis hoax.
LikeLike
The hoax approach is easier for them
LikeLiked by 1 person
This makes me angry, so I cannot imagine how you feel. What do such people use for brains? Where is their humanity?
LikeLike
Maybe it’s been lost in their ambition for political promotion
LikeLike
That politician is an ill-informed ass and needs to punched with a big hard dose of reality. It makes me so angry to think of how narrow minded and willfully ignorant.
So many kids do suffer in silence because of the fear of judgment and being seen as different and they end up slipping through the cracks without receiving the support that they need. This is so very upsetting.
LikeLike
Sadly there are more asses getting their voices heard and finding positions of power. The voices of reason are being drowned out, it’s really frightening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It truly is. And things in the US look down right frightening too.
LikeLike
Let even one of those politicians bring an autistic child into this world and their opinion would soon do a 180′ turn. Those speaking like this obviously have never come into contact with an autistic child or one with any of the other mental issues they might have. Its just another instance of dealing only with what one is familiar and declaring anything else a figment of the imagination or an outright lie. It is a real shame that the vulnerable ones are the ones who suffer for it.
LikeLike
I think too often political ambition outweighs doing or saying the right thing.
LikeLike
In my experience, it takes ‘a village’ to raise a child. An autistic child needs that village too. Until we, in general, accept the differences as experienced by so many outside the ‘mainstream’, so to speak; there can only be ignorance generating the type of comments you have quoted. Sad, but true!
LikeLike
That’s so true, unfortunately there seems to be a prominent view that the village needs to be selective on who lives there and how they think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The saddest part of this is hat the politicians think they know all about the subject – whatever has been allocated to them
LikeLiked by 1 person
They do and they get away with it because now they are given a script to stick to, the party line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So depressing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
it truly is
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish that a parent with incredible communication skills could advocate more widely for your son and others with disabilities (focusing on autism for obvious reasons.) This post is a great example of advocacy. Have you considered submitting this post to your local paper? It is an example of a view that is compassionate, nuanced and intelligent.
I write as one of those GPs who have precious few minutes to deal with the challenging diagnostic pathways. I think I’m currently being assigned virtually all adults with autism and other neurodiversity in our practice! Neurodiversity education is increasing awareness of what autism is. This is true depression and PTSD, mental health conditions that are on the rise due to the pandemic and shifts in the zeitgeist. It takes more than one consultation to process the paperwork and requires far more communication than is possible in a single consultation. Additionally, there are forms to fill out, as well as numerous relevant details to document regarding childhood development. As you rightly pointed out, adult services are sparse and tend to be local, resulting in the commonly described ‘postcode lottery’; and charity-based. The government doesn’t seem committed to expanding autism services except via private companies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
it must be impossible most times to assess and diagnose in so few minutes when it must seem like a conveyor belt of patients. The clinical lead who initially assessed my son, did that over 4 hour long sessions, in a relaxing environment plus a school visit to observe him. GPs get no more than 5 or 10 minutes.
LikeLike
Excuse- the err above- ‘this is also true for depression, PTSD and other mental health conditions…’
Incidentally, I was indicating that many mental health conditions are rising… autism/neurodiversity are however different since they are ‘hard-wired,’ and while effected by the zietgiest, aren’t caused by it.
LikeLike
It really weird to see this type of attitude in a developed country. I’m so sorry for the dumbness that has taken over the world
LikeLiked by 1 person
it’s becoming so common now, you hear so little alternative voices
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very unfortunate!
LikeLike
I’ve seen people start calling him Heir Starmer. Politicians are not supposed to do things based on what “they”, themselves, believe or feel. They’re SUPPOSED to look at the facts, talk to the experts, find out the best options for THE PEOPLE. There are FAR too many politicians at the moment only going by what they believe in themselves. Their job is not to go “well the numbers are too high, so I think its unreasonable” That is NOT their job.
LikeLike
Wes Streeting placed a ban on puberty blockers, based on ONE report. That has been thrown out and debunked all over the world, UK experts as well have debunked this report. The person who created the “report” was also Knighted! It is WILD!
LikeLike
it’s almost like in a stampede to react to the likes of Trump and Musk, politicians are trying to look strong and confrontational. Principles are ditched, it’s all about power now. As more countries vote in populist governments, copying them is seen as the route to power.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Its weird!
LikeLike
Starmer appeared to be a man of principles but the election of Trump seemed to change him drastically.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, that is so, so awful. I am almost unable to speak about how bad this is. Back to say… bloody politicians.
LikeLike
Now Labour is morphing into the Conservatives and the conservatives are morphing into the UK Trump party.
LikeLiked by 1 person
just terrible. I understand how you must feel about this.
LikeLike
it’s getting worse sadly
LikeLike
Keep saying it! Eventually someone will hear. Probably too late for your son, but we have to believe that there are good people out there.
LikeLike
just have to keep pushing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am sorry that it is the same story now, in 2025, it saddens me, but having mental health difficulties, and going through school with them, I can relate. X
LikeLike
it’s becoming more and more of a worry for many
LikeLike
Ignore the problem and it isn’t a problem.
Make the problem the cause of other problems, then funding can be removed and the problem is no longer a problem.
When funding is cut and the problem goes away, the citizens in need of those lost services all mysteriously disappear.
Problem solved.
Yeah, different country, same playbook.
LikeLike
it’s the stop reporting on an issue, stop recording it, then it’s disappeared.
LikeLike
Putting your hand up? Oh dear, no! I work out other signals with my autistic students e.g. one puts her noise-cancelling headphones around her neck, another moves his bag from the floor to his desk, and so on. Hands-up just doesn’t have to be a thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
sadly when class sizes are 30 and kids like Hawklad are dumped into the bottom set with one teacher and one TA, hands up often becomes the norm
LikeLiked by 1 person
I realise my comment is going to look like a shit sandwich.
🏵️🏵️🏵️ That’s a wonderful photo. I’m going to focus on that first. I’m attempting to imagine being there, wondering what the daffs smell like? Did the daffs rustle in the wind? Were they all facing the sun? Details, details, details that I’d love to take in and enjoy.
💩💩💩 As for the discussion of the shit that is happening here in the UK. I wonder if I’m just too saddened by all the shit that’s going on and being spewed everywhere to know how to respond a comment. I suppose I can add that I wonder why we allow individuals to “lead” us, because it might be an impossible task, I is impossible, right? I wouldn’t attempt that shit, not for all the tea in China. I wonder about the level of unkindness acted towards each other and projected by others with so many lies, so many f”ing lies and anger. I wonder about the violent actions aimed towards each other and the other sentient beings 🐤 🐑🐖 on this actually beautiful planet. It surely is having an effect on us all as a whole species, right? I wonder how I fit in, how I add to the 💩 mix by allowing my core to become angry, because of knowing or witnessing some of the shit. Where is my compassion towards those that are just too dumb, exploited, desperate, lead by the “leaders”.
🌸🌸🌸 I will end the comment with a positive, that it’s Sakara the cherry blossom season in Japan, with the first blossoms seen in the southwestern city of Kochi and how that must be so pretty, so fragrant.
LikeLike
there is a lot of the brown stuff out there, it’s overwhelming and sadly starts to numb the brain.
LikeLike
It sounds like as they say here in the US, someone needs to take that “esteemed” politician out behind the woodshed and “educate” them. I’m so sorry people in power are so utterly ignorant. We have morons here too and little support for people (kids and adults) with Autism or any mental health issue that significantly impacts them.
LikeLike