From Awareness to Acceptance, a Message from National Autistic Society
“In 2021, based on your feedback, we changed the name of our fundraising campaign to World Autism Acceptance Week (from World Autism Awareness Week). Thank you to everyone who helped with this. We’ve come a long way in the past 60 years, and today almost everyone has heard of autism. But far too few people understand what it’s actually like to be autistic – both the strengths you can have and how hard life can be at times.
No one should feel judged for being autistic or have to wait many months or even years for a potentially life-changing diagnosis, vital help and support. We need society to change. Autistic children, adults, and their families just want to be understood, supported and accepted in their communities, schools and workplaces.
After this name change, it’s brought about a conversation that gets us all thinking about how society still needs to make changes to support autistic people. We think it’s important to keep that conversation going for 2023.”
Watch this video for more information on Autism Acceptance Week
Our support for carers of autistic adults
Living with and caring for an autistic adult can be extremely rewarding, but also comes with many challenges.
“I can’t thank the carer’s support team enough for all of the work that they do. Their support has felt like a life saver.
My son got his official ASC diagnosis in his early teens but I didn’t really understand what Autism meant. I believed that Autism was only an issue when it came to his education and I didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on his ability to manage day-to-day life as an adult. As he transitioned into adulthood I felt isolated and unsupported. None of my friends or family understood. Fortunately I moved to Sussex and came across the carers’ support website. I joined one of their online groups for carers of autistic children and young adults. Finding out that what I was experiencing wasn’t unique and hearing about other people’s stories and challenges made it easier for me to accept and manage my own circumstances.
It’s been incredible to find a group of people who get it, and who are there to support without question or judgement I only wish I’d found them sooner.”
To find out more about our support for carers o
f autistic adults, click here
