Is it just me or are the National Autistic Society useless?

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They seem to let so many people down and don’t practice what they preach in their campaigns etc and don’t accept any kind of challenge. Who are they even accountable to?

I would concur. One of the most shocking conversations i had with them was regarding Autism and Aspergers employment and whether there was any positive discrimination within the NAS supply chains to empower folks with ASD to provide services if they were able to provide comparable or superior outcomes. I was passed around a bit and it turned out there wasn't and they weren't even open to the idea of creating provision to do so.

What i am observing is that the whole ASD support thing is a money making scheme for NTs without a true strategy of making positive impacts on the lives of people who actually endure this 'thing', sure a select group are helped but these are, it seems to me, to be kinda sock puppets to give the facade of giving a f**k.

i concur with the sentiments above - that the agencies that have been set up to support us dont actually support us, and yet everybody involved in the agency seems to draw a salary, and often a good one at that
i live in new zealand. i was diagnosed 10 months ago. i began asking for help from agencies three years ago, because my life began falling apart and no one could tell me why. when i found out i was autistic two years ago, i began asking for autistic specific support. i wish someone told me this was digging my own grave
since my diagnosis, which the agencies required in order for me to access their services, i have been sent around and around and around in circles, trying to access help that isnt offered, it seems, but which the agencies are set up to provide
i have just found it a nightmare
this includes autism specific agencies comparable to the NAS

It depends if you are able to get hold of a specific person. I've spoken to several people who worked for the NAS, and honestly, they were exceptional, and really knew their stuff.

thats good to know smudge

I tend to find the NAS are aimed at parents of Autistic children at least the website is. Almost all help out there is aimed at parents and children, well sorry for only being diagnosed aged 31 and having no help as a child. I think the NAS have their place but in my case are not helpful. They have a very poor employment section on the website that assumes we are all about 18 and looking for our first job. I have a degree and am 32 and don't really want to find out about support for young people any more.

Pretty much every service or organization designed for autistic people I've ever experienced has been useless. We've got to learn to be independent and do things ourselves.

Some organizations are good.

But.....it's true that one must be as self-reliant as possible.

I've depended on people too often in the past----and I was burnt.

I'm not bitter, though. People are under no obligation, really, to help me.

Though it's always nice when people do altruistic things for each other.

The most useful service I got from the NAS was the hyper-link to this place!

It's not so long ago that the NAS was called the National Autistic Children's Society, and as Fran1 said, this is still very apparent. When I wanted to find a local autism self-help group to join, I found that none of the NAS groups near me support adults on the spectrum. I understand the need to prioritise when resources are scarce, but I also think that they must miss out on autistic volunteers who could have a lot to share if we weren't kept so much at arms length (we all used to be autistic children once, after all.)

I'm also disappointed with their apparent apathy towards social and political issues. Compared to other disability charities, they have raised barely a squeak regarding recent cutbacks to benefits, healthcare and community support, some of which, like the introduction of PIP, have had a disproportionate effect on autistic people. Although it's nominally a charity, the NAS generates much of its income by providing services to government and local authority bodies, so I suspect there is an element of being afraid to bite the hand that feeds them, and over-reliance on the kind of projects which those customers deem most appropriate and publicly acceptable.

Society is under the general impression that once you turn 18, all your mental health issues go away. It’s the same here, heaps of help for children and family, adults are left to fend for themselves.

Autism is not a disorder for children. We just learn to live with it more each year, and get better at blending in.

I joined their forums a few months ago but am on the point of stopping posting there. I find it very triggering that quite a few posters there indirectly support the government's abuse of the disabled in that they dismiss or excuse the government's actions towards the disabled .

I agree , I have diagnoses of dyspraxia, ADHD and Aspergers traits.

I found they are for parents of children, certainly not high functioning, highly intelligent university graduates who has a few autistic traits, dyspraxia and ADHD.

It was almost practically useless, one issue enhanced , I learned nothing , seem to be unhelpful and have negative experiences, biased and one sided .

One person in 2009, claims to be able to diagnose Asperger’s syndrome, based on symptoms, diagnosis is complicated.

This topic is a few years old now, and I'd say they do less than they used to.

It was around the time this topic started that they stopped doing the Asperger United magazine for free. I didn't bother taking the paid for version as I had no income at the time. They have also stopped their helpline.

I can't help but think they pander to stereotypes quite a lot.

I registered on their discussion board recently (I'd been lurking there for years), in the hope that I might get a more UK focused discussion compared to what I get here. There are some good topics there, but they seem to be a lot less practical than on here. Also, they have moderators whose main job it seems to be to copy and paste generic answers to people who are feeling distressed - "Its really good that you've felt able to share your upsetting feeling with the community - now bugger off to your useless NHS GP and ring the Samaritans in the mean time". What is the point? Do they think people don't have the intelligence to look up the Samaritans in the phone book?