Achievable solutions for social workers working with autistic people - including those with complex needs - to maintain full lives in their communities, and avoid inappropriate institutional placements. Practical, autism-specific approaches are offered to enable practitioners to support and empower autistic people to achieve a good quality of life.
This book will help social workers and practitioners to find achievable solutions to support autistic people - including those with complex needs - to live fulfilling lives in their communities.
Far too many autistic people are currently in inappropriate institutional placements, putting their basic human rights at risk and experiencing a poor quality of life. Good quality support for autistic people is achievable, even in a social care system under pressure. This book will help practitioners to develop high quality community support to facilitate discharges and prevent admissions, by providing them with effective, practical strategies to communicate with and more effectively support autistic people right across the spectrum.
Common assumptions and beliefs are challenged, including the idea that behaviours are an inevitable part of autism, and practical approaches are offered to promote autonomy, respect for human rights and empathy with autistic perspectives as a basis for preventing distressed behaviour. This will enable practitioners to support and empower all autistic people to achieve a good quality of life in their communities.
Foreword
Acknowledgements
1. Where does autism fit from a social work perspective?
1.1 Autism in the context of social work
1.2 Why do I need to do anything differently for autism?
1.3 Autism and co-occurring conditions
1.4 Undiagnosed autism
1.5 How can this book help social workers?
2. Social care assessment and autism
2.1 Before the assessment
2.2 During the assessment
2.3 Chapter summary and key points
3. Social care eligibility and autism
3.1 Assumptions
3.2 Thresholds or barriers?
3.3 Autistic Needs in Daily Living
3.4 Chapter summary and key points
4. Person-centred care planning in autism
4.1 Person-centred approaches, needs-led planning and the wider context
4.2 What does good care look like? - Goals
4.3 What does good care look like? - A framework
4.4 Chapter summary and key points
5. Life stages, aging and transition planning
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Autism and attachment difficulties
5.3 Human development and developmental delay in autism
5.4 Autistic identity development
5.5 Managing transitions
5.6 Chapter summary and key points
6. Assessing mental capacity and autism
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Who does the assessment?
6.3 Assumptions
6.4 Autistic people and the development of decision-making skills
6.5 Providing all relevant information
6.6 Types of decision
6.7 Timing
6.8 The functional test
6.9 Chapter summary and key points
7. Supporting decision making in autism
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Lack of experience
7.3 Adapting communication
7.4 Providing information
7.5 Weighing information and making a decision
7.6 Communicating and executing the decision
7.7 Chapter summary and key points
8. Safeguarding and Autism
8.1 How big is the risk?
8.2 Types of abuse
8.3 Prevention
8.4 Safeguarding enquiries
8.5 Chapter summary and key points
9. Behaviour which may challenge
9.1 Overload: fight, freeze or flight
9.2 Managing behaviour: reaction
9.3 Managing behaviour: prevention
9.4 The wider context: preventing the breakdown of community placements and ending the inappropriate use of inpatient settings
9.5 Crisis planning
9.6 Chapter summary and key points
References
This book is written in an accessible and engaging way by an author who really knows her stuff, from the practical application of the law to the deep understanding of what its really like to be an autistic person living in the world today. This is not like other texts on autism; it gives an insight that is rarely seen, I recommend that everyone with an interest in autism reads this book.
