Support for autistic people in Sheffield is being offered by a collaboration of NHS services and charities to help them before and after diagnosis.
As part of the Autism Waiting List Project, Sheffield Adult Autism and Neurodevelopmental Service (SAANS) and the Sheffield Autism Partnership Network (SAPN) are working with six different charities across the city.
One of the organisations taking part is Sheffield Voices, a self-advocacy group for autistic individuals, which is part of Disability Sheffield.
Kelly Scargill, Project Coordinator at Sheffield Voices, said: “I want to be plainly clear that we offer waiting list support, even though the support is exactly the same as you’d provide to someone who is the diagnosed as autistic or self-identifies, because otherwise people might think it is not for them.
“It’s a confidence thing where people want to know that they can definitely take up this space. When you’re questioning a lot of things that can be really hard, so we wanted to be really explicit.”
Autism Plus, Darnall Wellbeing, Fir Vale Community Hub, Percy Street CIC, and SACMHA Health & Social Care are also taking part in the Autism Waiting List Project. These charities communicate with each other to ensure they can tailor support to different individuals.
Ms Scargill said: “For some people who get in contact with us from the waiting lists, our groups might not be the perfect fit for them, but we’re so integrated with the autistic community, we can say to them: “actually, you might really like this group’. So we’re that first point of contact. It gives people a choice without them having to explain their story about 50 different times, which can be really exhausting.”
They also set up a cafe for individuals who identify as neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ due to how passionately they want to help.
Joe Hamshere is the Manager of the Complex Needs Department in at the Burton Street Foundation, a disability support charity based in Hillsborough. The department was created in January to support any clients who need help developing specific care plans, including plans for autistic individuals.
He said: “There’s a bit of a black hole from where someone will get a diagnosis. That individual themselves has to search for groups that they want, but that might be quite difficult because they’re autistic.
“We’re part of the Sheffield Autism Partnership Board and the big thing that they’re doing is providing these groups for autistic people, but sometimes accessing them is the difficult part.
“You have such a range of different people who can bring the world so much joy, but they need to be supported in the correct way to be able to do that, and maybe society itself needs to recognise autism more. We’re in the wider neurodiversity movement, but autism support needs to be specific to each individual, which is the hard part.”
The Autism Waiting List Project, is a six-month pilot scheme which began in March this year.
