'More support needed' for families with autistic children in York
It's Autism Awareness Month throughout April.
It's feared children with autism in York have become more isolated during the pandemic.
A new report is warning that 87% of parents with disabled children say Covid has negatively impacted their mealtimes.
The study by McCains warns: "When it comes to family mealtimes, almost 9 in 10 families raising disabled or seriously ill children (87%) report that the pandemic has negatively impacted their mealtimes, while for families without disabled children this figure was much lower at 45%.
"While in a typical week 82% of families without disabled children sit down for a meal as a family on three or more days, families raising disabled children find it harder to get together, with two in three (64%) sitting down for food on three or more days".
Caroline Wells is a single parent from York and has an autistic daughter called Sienna: "It's been very hard. Obviously part of autism is a routine, and my daughter's routine has been thrown totally out of the window.
"She's had to cope with so much more and get used to a lot of different things. It's caused her a lot of anxiety. It's been a big learning curve.
"I've worked with vulnerable adults for over 10 years, but at the start of the pandemic the place where I worked had to close down; the centre couldn't host vulnerable adults.
"I had to go and work into a residential home, which was a whole new learning process as I was redoing things I hadn't done in a long time. I had to re-learn a job I had previously done.
"Sienna did go to school throughout the whole pandemic because of her being a vulnerable child, and me being a key worker. However, during the first lockdown she was at home for two days a week. It was a no-go zone for her doing school work at home, so it caused massive issues and meltdowns at home. To her, school is for schoolwork and home is for home.
"Sienna had gotten used to school being a small group of people, and she had to transition to a junior school. As much as she enjoyed that new experience it was also a time of great anxiety for her.
"During the last lockdown she went fulltime at school whilst I became a Teaching Assistant. She had to readjust again, so it's been a real up and down experience for her.
"There wasn't enough support for people with autism during the pandemic, because people were so focused on what was going on at the time. Some things couldn't be done, like Sienna having her one-to-one TA in place at the time. She didn't have that constant support that she needed".
Caroline and Sienna have been helped by the McCains' Family Fund, which gives grants to go on holidays: "It's given us both a break and allowed us to have fun, without the day to day efforts of going to school and work.
"For Sienna, it's been amazing to have that time away".