Nothing has changed in UK society for the better since this report from 2022. If anything, the cost of living crisis, benefit cuts and reduced support for struggling carers and families means things are getting worse for the most vulnerable.
When it comes specifically to therapeutic services, there are too few that are willing to work with neurodivergent people. This means access to talking therapies for hundreds of thousands of people with learning disabilities, autism, ADHD and other conditions is extremely difficult to obtain, especially if they are reliant on the NHS to provide or fund it.
The NHS is failing the neurodivergent population in other ways as well. Waiting lists are long and the number of sessions eventually offered to the lucky can be as few as four and so are often limited to focusing on task-based goals rather than more in-depth trauma work.
You shouldn’t need to be ‘lucky’ to get the care you need in Britain.
There are those in the charitable, mental health and therapeutic sectors fighting for change and providing what care and support they can, but, as things stand, no politician from any party could honestly say the UK is doing a good job of looking after the people who need looking after the most.
These are the consequences of systemic failure: worsening mental health, suicidal ideation, neglect, abuse, early preventable deaths, long-term incarceration, pacification with drugs, homelessness… The list goes on.
My wish for 2024 is a New Deal for people with learning disabilities and other neurodivergencies, with trauma taken seriously and not made worse; referrals for diagnosis, psychiatric care and talking therapies made and carried through; and, more therapists in organisations and private practice equipping themselves to work with all kinds of people.
Let’s stop locking people up for being disabled as a first step, overdue by several hundred years.
xph therapy offers integrative counselling, which means working with multiple therapy types, including CBT, psychotherapeutic and person-centred to develop a therapeutic pathway just for you, whatever outcome you’re hoping to achieve. Get in touch in a variety of ways. See the contact page for more info.