Something interesting I'd like to point out...

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Whatsherhame
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04 Jan 2009, 5:57 pm

Has anyone else here noticed that when a lot of the time somebody talks about 'low functioning autism' and 'LFA' people that so much more that wouldn't be even remotely okay with a HFA or normal person suddenly becomes 'good', 'helpful', or 'necessary'?

Something I've noticed a lot just by reading posts on the interent about it is that it's almost like people think that once you're LFA, you won't be able to feel something drastic like all of your teeth missing or
your fingernails suddenly being gone (If said LFA person had self-destructive habits, or if you were afraid they were gonna get raped, like in the case of Ashley X).

Is it moral and ethical to do such things to these people and not even consider how frightening or just plain weird it might be to them? Would you advise the same things to someone if they could speak and care for themselves even if they still had self destructive habits like head-banging or scratching or biting themselves? What would you think or feel if it was you doing these things? What are your experiences with these sort of things? Has anyone ever threatened to do such things to you? What are thoughts on these sort of things?
:?:



garyww
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04 Jan 2009, 6:08 pm

HFA,LFA, AS, These are terms adopted by mostly NT professionals to define milestones on the spectrum where in reality many of us have traits that go from the low to the high end all in one bundle. For that reason many of us have learned to ignore what are sometimes basically uneducated questions, assumptions and impressions.


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KingdomOfRats
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04 Jan 2009, 7:36 pm

agree,
some do see 'LFA' and drop their respect level completely,and couldnt care less.
people assume if are LFA,all are doing is taking up the worlds money needing support, adaptions, specialists and specialist housing,and are worth less than everyone else.

if want to find out what experiences LFAs have,ask the few 'LFAs' here or elsewhere who know from their own experience,and have seen what happens to lfas worse off than themselves.

am LFA,and if a user who has said they are hfa/as has a problem that am had or still experience,will give exactly the same ideas that helped self-such as going to an OT for head banging-as they can fit wall padding-and give protective helmets.
am dont see any difference when giving the ideas that have helped self,and can tell 'hfs' ideas which may not be available to them,but most things should be available.

in the UK at least,in adult care-every little thing is written down-what eat,what drink,what wearing that day,what are like,whether have done anything,activities etc...others are officially in charge of things,and every thing has to go through specialists-staff are not allowed to do something such as a certain type of restraint or change the way they communicate with self unless it's gone through one of the team specialists-it's written in something they call 'guidelines',it's actually very difficult to get treated as bad now because in the uk at least,CSCI has got stricter,they go through everything and makes sure nothing bad has happened,a few years back places got away with a lot more- especially in the DD/LD institutions because they are more closed in and fenced off from everyone else-the UK has closed them all down now for such reason.
am had been in a 'good' institution,and know about what happened in the 'bad' ones was a lot worse,was physically abused by staff-such as them slamming head on the metal hand bar of bath when they were washing hair which broke part of front teeth,pushed them up into gum and cut up lip,and was allowed to be both sexually and sensory abused as well by a severely schizophrenic resident in front of staff.
they let the same resident attack a completely harmless LFA male on regular basis,he would never hit anyone back plus he isnt as able with language to say what has happened,so he was easily bullied,that guy shouldnt have even been there,he was supposed to have been in moorside [a pysch unit at trafford general] but they moved him out.
anyway,none of that got found out till beginning of last year,when became a full time national autistic society service user of their support staff,they train LD staff here in autism,go to the NAS sensory room and they make sure am looked after-nothing gets past them,they did a big investigation into all the abuse that went on,and had passed on the info about what happened to the male even though he wasnt a service user-they did a big investigation into that as well.
the NAS are more understanding of am than own family and would never treat any autist-however profoundly affected or severely MR-like non human.

Another thing along what garyww has said,the functioning levels in the autistic community can mean different to those who work in care who use the outdated meanings,they see two types of functioning- low functioning-has got severe mental retardation,high functioning-can use a computer.
the levels dont do much except seperate autists in terms of respect-between each other and also in how much is given by outsiders such as support staff or teachers.


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