THIS IS WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY SENT OUT IN FEB 2011 TO GET OUR VOICES HEARD…
You may be aware of the Inside Out programme that aired on Monday night about the couple who have a 19yr old Autistic daughter whom David Cameron offered help too.Well after the show Rick and I emailed the BBC to let them know that this is not an isolated case and there are many parents going through the same fights and turmoils.To this end Helen Wakefield (the producer of the programme) responded back to us.
Our email to Helen
We were most pleased to see your article on the parents of the two Autistic Children who have been promised assistance by David Cameron. SPACE4Autism is an organisation set up 5 years ago by parents in East Cheshire of Autistic Children/Adults and we have been providing support, speakers and more recently a respite club for kids in the Macclesfield area.
Unfortunately despite our best efforts we still have a number of parents who are equally as desperate as the family featured on your Inside Out programme.
There is no specific schooling within East Cheshire and many of our children have to travel outside the region for there educational requirements, we are in the process of writing to Michael Gove, David Cameron and Nick Clegg and our local MP David Rutley expressing our deep concern that a whole raft of children are being denied the opportunity to fulfull there potential.
Please see the website at the bottom of the page for background information and we would welcome the opportunity to show our challenges to a much wider audience.
The following morning Helen rang Rick to discuss how we might be able to bring a wider scope to the debate surrounding the challenge of raising autistic children, which was followed up by the email below:-
Hello Richard
Great to speak to you earlier. I’d really like to give more coverage to the difficulties parents face with children with autism.
What I’d like to get across – is the day to day commitment of looking after a child with autism.
This would involve us doing some conventional filming but also giving the parent a tiny video camera to make a video diary.
I’d also like to explore the issues of schooling, respite care, assistance, socialisation, cuts backs and any other issue that arises.
I was wondering if you could speak to your group and see if anyone would be willing to share their story with us. The more contributors the better.
Look forward to hearing from you
Helen Wakefield
So if there is anyone out there willing to take on this challenge of filming your everyday life with your children or adults (as the case may be) to raise awareness of how difficult life can be then please email me back asap.
We are hoping to have a meeting with Helen to finalise details of how we are to proceed so obviously parents who want to get involved will be kept in the picture.
We are not sure yet which programme this will be aired on whether it be “Inside Out” or something separate. This is a great opportunity for SPACE which we want to grab with both hands.
So please if you are interested at this stage please let me know
Thanks
Cheryl
SPACE
SO HUGE THANKS GO TO ALL THE PARENTS AND CHILDREN INVOLVED AT THE INITIAL INTERVIEW STAGES – JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT PEOPLE POWER DOES WORK SOMETIMES.
JUST WANT TO SAY BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NAS AND SPACE4AUTISM AND THE PARENTS I AM SURE ARE RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
