Teesside autism support charity says demand for services 'increasing'
Daisy Chain says they're now supporting on average 675 families a month
A Teesside charity which supports families and those with autism says the demand for their services is 'increasing all the time'.
Earlier this week we told you that children in the North East are waiting 13-weeks or more for their first autism appointment.
Daisy Chain says they supported on average 450 families a month this time last year in the Tees Valley - now it has risen to 675.
Jenny Hewitt is the director of services there and she said: "We know how important getting the right support in place as early as possible is and the fact that kind of leads to better long term outcomes. We know that if the right support isn't in place for a child for school then this will lead to poorer educational outcomes and also really significant mental health challenges.
"Parents feel really anxious about getting the right support in place for that child but actually also, they're sometimes worried about accessing autism support or kind of implementing autism strategies in case that ends up being not the diagnosis that the child gets.
"All of our services can now be accessed by families and autistic individuals pre-diagnosis as well as during the diagnosis process and post-diagnosis. Parents are asking about the most support around mental health and challenges with school."
Jenny tells us what she wants to see: "Continuing to promote not just autism awareness but autism acceptance and also, in terms of advocating for that support to be needs-led and not diagnosis-based whilst still recognising that a diagnosis can be important."
She added that significant Government investment is needed for system-wide changes: "Examples of that could include investing in the workforce but also looking at initiatives like people making autism-training for schools mandatory. We feel like that's something that's really important because we know how many of our children and young people are struggling in school."