Single parents of children with suspected autistic traits report spending up to two hours each morning getting children to school and coping with frequent absences from severe anxiety. Exhaustion prevents steady work and many receive no benefits. Attempts to access child and adolescent mental health services often take years; entry to a neurodiversity pathway can still leave nine-month waits for assessment. Schools try to help but cuts to children's services force families to manage alone. Parents of disabled children, including deafblind children, struggle to obtain funded nursery places and appropriate schools, often causing severe distress and isolation.
Each morning can take me up to two hours just to get my daughter into school. Despite all my efforts, she is often absent due to severe anxiety. I am on my knees with exhaustion. The struggle makes it almost impossible to plan working days or earn a stable income, and I receive no benefits. For more than two years I have tried to access child and adolescent mental health services support.
While other kids learn, play and have fun at their schools and nurseries, my deafblind son Harvey breaks down. We couldn't get the funding for a nursery place that best meets his needs, so now he doesn't eat, and gets so distressed he pulls out his cochlear implants. Battling the system to find an appropriate nursery feels lonely and isolating, but in many ways it's worse to know I am far from alone.
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