Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at women's radio station promoting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism We're live at Covent Garden and we have a full room here today. We have Aaron Thapper who's one of Boston Health School's pupils and he is doing some work experience. He's been looking after our charity website. He's writing articles He's doing lots of things that are supporting the charity. So today he's been supporting Jerry and Jerry is One of the autumn champions from Croydon So we're gonna be joining cherry in a little minute and what I'm gonna be talking to you about is autumn's got talent I am so excited. It's coming off. It's on Saturday. The build-up is just immense So we've got 18 performers that are getting ready to showcase their talent on Saturday at the mermaid theater in black fryers We've got celebrities. We've got red carpet. We've got everything So you need to come and see what I'm talking about. It's such a fantastic experience So back to the show in hand So I'll talk to you a little bit more about the performers a little bit on in the the actual program So today we have Jerry Fitzpatrick and he's an experienced local politician who's a retired lawyer and a semi-retired teacher He keeps his hand in as a teacher by running an English literature class for the workers educational Association Jerry has been a political activist and a campaigner all his adult life at the age of 16 in 1968 he went on his first demonstration, which was against the Vietnam War Jerry has always lived in Croydon. He first served on Croydon Council for 16 years between 1986 and 2002 during which time he became a deputy leader of Croydon's first ever Labour Council Sorry Labour Council. He returned to the council in 2018 local elections and was appointed the new autism champion. So welcome Jerry Thank you very much indeed and if you're inviting me and welcome Aaron No, so he's here. It's first recording experience and the radio. So Aaron, I believe you've got some questions for Jerry So would you like to ask your first question? How did you get involved with the council? The first thing you need to do before becoming a counselor is to be active in politics Aaron and I've been active in politics for about 50 years. So that's quite a long time you Need to belong to a political party jet generally certainly if you are active in politics in London My political party is Labour, but obviously other people are in other political parties if you've been very active then people start saying to you would you like to be on the council and So it came to be that I was first Made a council candidate in 1985 and was elected in 1986 So Aaron, I believe you have a second question Which what part of your job did you enjoy the most? Well, there are quite a few parts of the job that I really enjoy and first is Meeting lots of interesting people whom I haven't met before I've met you today not quite for the first time but almost the first time Aaron you always learn new things when you meet people And today for example, I've learned about Calvin Harris. I know you're horrified. I've never heard of Calvin Harris before I apologize, but you've taught me something. That's always good Two other important things it's Challenging intellectually to the mind and it's challenging politically. So I'm learning about new things. I'm learning about autism I probably knew a little bit more than most people 12 months ago And now I know a lot more than most people about autism So that's been challenging for me and the other big challenge is trying to make things happen at what I would call a political challenge I'm a politician. I'm in my role as a politician and trying to do things for people and make things happen Thank you. So Aaron, how have you been finding your work experience? Have you been enjoying it? Yeah, it's been great Thank you. So thank you for supporting the charity. I really appreciate it And I'm looking forward to reading your articles So Jerry could you tell me what does the role of a Croydon autism champion involved and how long have you been in the role? since the end of May so 11 months I was elected in May there's a bit of a story how I got appointed autism champion. Okay, cuz Serendipity, I don't know if Aaron you know what that means but kind of a good fortune It was all fortune played its part in me becoming autism champion the autism champion is appointed by the leader of the council and The leader of the council appointed another counts for as autism champion and he appointed me as old people's champion Which I didn't take particularly kindly to such an old person and myself So I thought I was being rather stereotyped and then our first group meeting after the election The guy who was appointed autism champions. I don't want to be autism champion Which is good really because if you I think you need to want to do it To be autism champion and I said rather cheekily because it's really the leaders role I said, okay Well if you don't want to be autism champion, but you'll swap with me you be old people's champion I'll be autism champion and the kind of leader was sort of just sort of not doing it at that point and so it was I became autism champion, but the The role of autism should I go on to that? The role of autism is not something that's written down So I had the chance to if you like interpret the role for myself Okay, and as I see it at the job of autism is very simple It's to promote policies and practices that make life better for people in the autism community most definitely So we're looking for awareness. We're looking we're looking for acceptance Which are key for families and for children and adults who are affected on the autism spectrum So tell me a little bit more about the here autism initiative, please. I had to Reflect on how I could achieve The kind of things that the autism community might like me to achieve and I'm a lawyer by Background or is that's part of my professional training. So as a lawyer, I know that evidence is quite important If you're going to persuade people it's not just sufficient for me to stand as I am Jerry Fitzpatrick You're gonna do what I say. Yeah, cuz that ain't gonna happen. No, so What I thought would be a good idea would be to actually just have the voice of people who are in the autism community Are captured Not a not a consultation although consultation may and you cause come into it, but just people telling Telling me and others involved in the here autism group what life is like for them. What their concerns are what things Generally haven't gone well for them. Occasionally what things have gone well for them And so that's what it's about So lots and lots of people have said things to me and my colleagues and we've written them down We've got a partner in this called health watch Croydon and they're going to be writing a report about The main themes that have emerged from that from the initiative and hopefully this will be an ongoing thing So what things are families highlighted to you? Can you give us some examples? Right. Well Quite a number of things and I think it rather depends on the age of the autistic person Concerned there are a lot of carers of young people whose main focus is on things like EHTPs, yeah so Then we go on to as the smaller children become older children then the lack of support from Health service mental health services. That's quite a focus in the media at the moment Yeah quite and quite and quite rightly so We get on to when the children become teenagers and their transition are they going to get the kind of social care? They need if indeed they are eligible for social care And then the kind of themes that autistic adults raise with me and their carers housing employment reasonable adjustments and having a life because I'm afraid so many sad stories of Autistic people who are adult autistics who are in a room Somewhere doing not very much. That's right. And I believe it's 15% of our autistic adults are in employment so that figure needs to rise and I can Say to you safely that my son has been employed now for Probably about nine ten months and I can see a huge difference in him in the way he holds himself his conversation He's happier. He feels like he's contributing to society. He's enjoying his job. He's telling me about what he's doing So I'm speaking to so many parents who are asking me Anna Can you help me even an adult just recently saying Anna? Can you help me? I need to try and find a job I live in the West Midlands, you know, I have a degree. No one's listening to me. I'm not very good at interviews So I find it, you know, very very stressful. So That's the sort of thing that I've been highlighted to me. I'm sure that's a theme to which we're return later in our conversation but obviously one of the key things as you know is the fact that Employers don't understand the potential of Autistic people they don't they don't understand what making reasonable adjustments might involve to enable autistic people to to play their part and often The workforce the colleagues of autistic Employees just are not sufficiently sensitive to the needs of autistic people because they haven't had sufficient and Training in order to to a system to do that. That's it and it's Training is key, but it's consistency in training as well. It's no point just having like half a day type of thing It just needs to be consistent. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that We're at women's radio station all things autism and we're promoting women's well-being which is key and we are Talking about Croydon at the moment with our autism champion Jerry Fitzpatrick I have a charity champion Marla Fappo is also in the room with me So and we'll talk a little bit about what Marla is doing. So if you'd like to Send us a message and you want to ask a question. It's WWW dot Anna Kennedy online.com and it's women's radio station live at Covent Garden Welcome to women's radio station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to love lessons live on women's radio station Hello and welcome to future classic women's awards with me Hello and welcome to julene is listening Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at women's radio station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism women The possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different Hi, I'm Farguni Desai of action coach. Are you a business owner with more than five employees? Do you want to grow your business? I'm a London-based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit I will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework To find out more contact me on. Oh double seven two one six five four six four zero and book your one-hour Complementary one-to-one coaching session. Thank you. 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That's what makes us different Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're talking all things autism We're live in Covent Garden and we are talking to Jerry and we've been talking to Aaron who's doing some work experience with us today So his first experience of being in a radio station I just wanted to share with you a couple of our performers that are going to be performing on autumn Scott talent Which is on Saturday. So one of the performers is just Shea She's 11 years old and is a very energetic and bubbly girl Shea loves to talk especially about animals singing and acting her favorite place to visit is the butterfly house in Stratford-upon-Avon Shea goes to a performing arts club which she attends each week and loves taking part in musicals and plays in the future Shea wants to continue to perform on stage and hopefully one day in a theatre show in London So she's going to be performing on autumn Scott talent at the mermaid theatre on Saturday, which is a 650 seated theater so she will have a fantastic experience and make so many friends My guests today are Jeremy and Jeremy sorry Jerry not Jeremy Jerry So Jerry you say that health watch Croydon is your here autism partner. What do they bring to the project? Not everybody has heard of a health watch, but it's actually quite an important organization Because it's actually been established by law by the I think the health and social care act of 2012 and it's actually there to ensure that all the consumers of health and Social care are represented and have a voice and can have their views reflected to the agencies that provide health and social care And this is where some of us are consumers of health of social care, but all of us are consumers of health It's quite an important organization so what they are going to be doing is they are going to be writing a report setting out the main themes of what the People have been involved in here autumns initiative have set out They are input they're part of a number of important boards and committees So it will help us take the voices of the autistic community to those important boards and committees on which for example clinical commissioning groups are represented where consultants attend where top council officials attend and Hope it hopefully they will be joining me in saying this is the evidence that we are not doing enough to listen to a meet The needs of the autism community, so they're going to bring quite a lot I hope to the work that we're doing okay, so have you got a by Wendy when you hope for this report to be ready? They have yeah, and they hope That it's going to be about that. They're going to have By mid-may the material and they're going to write it up by the end of May I don't think that's realistic because I don't think they are aware people outside the autism community aren't aware how Complicated is to actually get the voices down of people in the autism community for all sorts of reasons that we understand to do with people's Attributes actually put it that way and I think health watch Croydon originally thought it was simply a matter of you make a Questionnaire and people are going to answer are going to write down a few things well as we know that is rubbish if you really Want to get down what people who are autistic actually think and believe? So it's going to take a bit longer. I don't want to set a fixed date But we certainly want to have something by the beginning by the beginning of the summer holidays Yeah And it needs to be shared to make sure that everyone gets to hear about it because I was speaking to Paula and she's been liaison with trying to get mandatory training for the NHS star and The consultation had to be extended a few weeks because something like only one thousand three hundred people had contributed So if you're talking about the whole country That's not a lot of contribution and it was GPs were saying they didn't know anything about it Nurses were saying they didn't know anything about it. So they had to extend the time frame So it's about getting the word out and it's about people knowing that it's there and it's to be completed I took part along with people in Croydon council in the consultation and to me It's an object lesson in how consultation of that kind which useful Yeah, that is in itself not sufficient because again, you've got a series of questions A lot of those questions are quite complex and difficult to to answer in the way they've been put so I'm actually I don't have a lot of confidence and frankly neither the law of council officers that that is going to evoke the kind of response that government is going to be able to turn into something that was going to be useful and Being translated into new public policy on which is on such that on this important this year So we should wait and see and watch the space and what themes do participants in here autism keep on repeating So what's been repeated over and over again by parents and adults over and over again? the fact that EHCPs they're not sufficient sufficiently specific in terms of providing for people's needs So that they're not identifying sufficiently and providing for example for young people's speech and language Needs or occupational therapy needs or mental health needs It's because they become a little bit at times a cop-out They're not as people as young people move the transition stage They are not providing for perhaps a social care than identifying the social care that might be needed But time and time again, there are autistic people who are saying to me, right? I want to work but I just I'm I've tried for lots and lots of jobs and I just haven't got anywhere. They say to me and I believe them cuz I understand they're saying I've got this experience I've got this knowledge We're taking all this and putting it down and employers are not seeing what we can bring to their organization So that's that's a big thing housing People are saying to me, right? We want or and the carers are saying to me about adult was just a statistic people The housing is just not sufficiently tailored to our means to our needs rather that that Council officials social care officials Think that if you lump a couple of autistic people together and throw them in with someone with mental health difficulties and put them in in a house that is House together with a carer that it's going to work. Well, it's not going to work You can't want people together that it's got the housing solutions have got to be tailored to the individuals And there has got to be sufficient hands-on support to enable that housing to work for the individuals who are concerned and often none of these things apply Do you know within Croydon because I asked this of many local authorities how many people have been diagnosed with autism? So how many children are diagnosed how many adults because then obviously you need to know then this is the sort of provision that we need to put in place because we've got so many I've spoken to so many local authorities and some Do know and some don't know Let's take first of all the data about children We have more data about children than we do about adults but it's still inadequate because the data isn't always actually a sufficiently recorded and Known about by the agencies who are dealing with autistic people So we have a reasonable amount of data, but it is still quite inadequate when it comes to adults Of course the situation is still worse because there are many adults who haven't been diagnosed and of course that brings Us to the question of the absence of an adult diagnostic pathway in Croydon. It is just almost impossible To be diagnosed well It is impossible to be a diagnosed as an adult unless either a you can afford to pay for yourself Dipping into harder and say savings about four five thousand pounds for a diagnosis sure or be you've got to such a state of crisis that finally the Consultants concerned are prepared to take you on and what by that time or situation has obviously got far worse than it should that It should have done so that in itself raises an issue But the headline point is that the data is still inadequate and we need to be better. Thank you So you're talking about the EH CP So for people who were listening in that might be new to this their sons or daughter might be just recently Diagnosed and you're saying that there are concerns that are being raised. Could you just like and just embellish a little bit So for people listening in thinking, right? I've got any HCP. I'm not quite sure what should be written on there So we spoke about speech and language therapy or how it has to be specific. So say for example, they might say You need regular speech and language therapy. What does that mean? You know, does that mean once a year? That's regular it means that your Your support needs are specifically identified in the EH CP The education of health and care plan has the status of it is a legal government. It is a legal document It's important to say that there it can be enforced in a court of law or tribunal of law It's highly significant. It is the gateway to Obtaining the services that you or your child Needs you're so it needs to set out not in general terms what speech and language Support you need it needs to say how much how often and who's going to provide it It needs to say how much occupational therapy you need and who how often and where it's going to be provided and so on and too often local authorities are getting away with Educational health and care plans that are not specific because local authorities are struck for cash Yeah, and they don't want to actually be over committed to providing the resources that the autistic young person actually needs so parents and carers are in the position of Often in the position of having to fight like crazy in order to get that which their young person needs And we've all met those of us who involved with the autism community, of course on parents who've been on a serial tribunal to tribunals special educational needs and disabilities tribunals where where local authorities and are then Some often forced by the tribunal to make their statement much more stronger and particular than it than than it has been Local authorities often not much more often not lose the case that the parent brings very often the parent is taken to the door of court after a long and stressful process and the local authority then backs down right at the huge amounts of stress often costs for families involved because they employ and solicitors to Assist them is much much more difficult than it It should be if moral resources were available. That's right Then there's I know that local authorities do employ consultants and to battle with the parents and then at the very last minute I've heard that they say well Is there evidence better than ours and if it is then that's when they back down and that's after parents as you say Have maxed out credit cards. They've borrowed money To the extent it's obviously because they just want to get the right support for their children and that's because they're reading books They're reading information about how important it is for early intervention. It's so crucial for our children. So we're at The radio station in Covent Garden. It's a lovely sunny day today and we're looking after women's well-being women in the autism community and Mothers who are parents of children on the spectrum are lynch pins So they need to look after their well-being so whatever it is that you do to help you relax Have a cup of tea have a jump up and down and scream whatever it is that you need to do You need to do it and get out of your system So we're at the radio station. If you want to ask questions of us, please contact us on www.anna kennedy online.com if you'd like to be a speaker contact me and we'll contact you back thank you very much and Please keep listening Women's radio station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion Connecting women around the world in a global network is all about diversity from the pinions career ethnicity Education we aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and a platform for your voice Women the possibilities are endless. 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Turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet Job loss illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis We give practical help to get people back on track Whether you're thinking of having a baby Trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to we can help Visit turn to us.org.uk Let me tell you about German Street Theatre This is a secret theater in the heart of the West End once found never forgotten This is where careers ignite where great actors perform just feet away from the audience This is where magic happens We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows The website is germanstreettheatre.co.uk You're listening to women's radio station supporting women's well-being Coming soon will be a host of new shows supporting all areas of your well-being Shows that you can get involved in so stay tuned women's radio station.com here for you Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we are all things autism in Covent Garden and we're talking about some of our performers On autism's got talent. So we have our very first dog on autism's got talent on Saturday and i'm so excited So Tess was diagnosed just over a year ago And she's the owner and she rescued kratu as a puppy five years ago and together they have trained and worked together He is her assistant dog a therapy dog and her best friend He has gone viral twice around the world on social media for an amazing freestyle comedy agility performance at crufts Kratu has been on tv film work modeling and he has flown back to Romania with Tess The first rescue assistance dog in the world to do this Tess and kratu will be showing some tricks for the autism's got talent audience this year They hope to show people what you can achieve with kindness rescuing a dog and training with an autistic owner She's also asked this week if she can bring polo another one of her rescue dogs So both kratu polo and we have Tess that are going to be on stage Um at autism's got talent. So we're really looking forward to that. I've seen kratu on crufts He's such a character and he's so lovable. So i'm so excited to meet him So today we have Jerry Fitzpatrick and joining us now is Marla Thapa Who's one of my charity champions and mom to Aaron? So Marla is giving me dagger looks because she wasn't expected to be talking on the radio She's one of my charity champions and she's been with me for quite a few years now She's an amazing woman and she supports me with so many projects So what do you think Marla could the health service do in Croydon to restore confidence? I think the biggest key issue here is the actual process and how long a diagnosis takes And and I think it's a very complicated process and I think it's really important For the families to be supported that is key in this and to work with the families and you know, because obviously the It is a child or the adult that that would benefit from this I also think it's important for schools to work closely with parents as well and to Make this process a lot more Smoother and have more joined up One more approach as opposed to A parent getting sent from pillar to post it needs to be clearly signposted and almost like a Like a rule like, you know, if you know a structured process. Yeah It's quite stressful First of all for a parent to find out that their child's diagnosed with autism or suspect that and then when they're waiting for the process It's also stressful for the school because they're not quite sure what they're dealing with So, um, you know, it's really key that the diagnosis process doesn't take five years Like I've spoken to some parents some parents have said three years some are quite lucky and get it in six months But so what's your experience of parents coming to you saying Croydon? How long have they been waiting? Would you say I'll say they've been waiting between three to five years and some even longer. Wow and um the symptoms are quite obvious and It's the whole process of waiting and whilst I can sign through the charity I can signpost them What you know where to go next. Yeah, it's very difficult to actually get there And then it's the waiting game and then when and if the diagnosis does happen, it's the support afterwards Which is key because it causes devastation in some families and it's it's heartbreaking Watching this happen in front of you, you know They think they get the diagnosis and that's the passport to the support but it's not it's sometimes I've spoken to parents where they've just been given a leaflet and it's just like okay. There you go. Yeah, that's it So Jerry, what's your experience and what a parent's been saying to you within the last 12 months? specifically about the health service The health service, um, and I would say is a microcosm of the rest of life There are lots of good people working in it But there are far too many people who are far too self-satisfied with what is being done and No particular prison health service that could be said of many agencies. So There are consultants gps who Think that what's being done shouldn't be challenged or Just aren't really interested hearing the experiences of people for whom the services are inadequate So the health service needs to be I think much more prepared to listen to what people are saying and very often they are Too satisfied about having some new policy, which is going to be the answer to a prayer Like you say early years, which is of course absolutely right early years But unfortunately not all problems manifest themselves in other years as we know Pubescence adolescence is often a period of crisis in the autism community autistic people High achieving autistic people leaving university and finding that Life is suddenly very different. It's often a period of crisis. So we need resources in Those areas too. We need a diagnostic pathway For adults at every level The health service has got to look at itself and think What more can be done and stop making excuses and turning a blind eye And ignoring all the things that all the bad things are Which are are happening. So that's what I would like to to see and happen now we as Part of the autism community have got to see how we can make ourselves more effectively in getting agencies Like the the health service to hear our to hear our voice and not least the point that I've forgotten to make now I want to make that um training within the health service needs to be much more effective a lot of Recurring thing in here autism my Gps who don't really know anything about autism Trying to squeeze autistic people into 10 minute interviews It's not how things work for people in the autistic community and consultants who know far too little about autism But right the way through the amount of training needs to be much more effective It does and you get a lot of gps Um, well parents have approached me where they've gone to their gp and also adults where they've said What do you want to diagnose this for you're an adult for what you know What are you going to do with it? And it's just like I would like to know and I spoke to a gentleman who was 73 years old who went through the diagnosis process and he said I don't want to do anything with it I just want to know and he said when he was diagnosed He felt like a big weight had been lifted from his shoulders and thought now I understand why I do the things that I do And so it's just like please just listen, you know, it's just all you need to do is make a referral It's the it's no big deal really is it for the gp if you think about it A person has come to you and said look, I think you know, i've got some alarm bells here You know, i've been looking it up on um, maybe google whatever it is that they're looking at I think my son or daughter may be on the spectrum Unfortunately in croydon, it's not just a simple matter of a gp making referral You've actually got to go through a tertiary panel in order for that referral to be effective And the gatekeeping of that tertiary panel makes it almost impossible for an assessment to be under Undertaking and without an assessment you can't get, you know a diagnosis So hence why people are going private then so when we did our survey, which was a few years ago There was and five percent of people at that time i'd really like to know now if the you know The percentage has increased where people are going private Because we did a survey where uh parents were saying that they were waiting on average five years for a diagnosis across the country But there was five percent of people said they were actually going privately because they didn't want to wait I can give the headline for adult autistic people attending their gp I'm wanting to get a diagnosis The headline is abandon hope we he went to here They're not going to get it unless they've got cash in their back pocket I actually had a television studio last week contact me because they're making a program And they said there's an adult that they're filming at the moment and he wanted a diagnosis and they said The television studio actually said we can't wait that long for him to have the diagnosis We want to make the program So can you recommend to me a couple of people that where he can go privately? And I thought how sad is that you know, really if you think about it So he just feels like he's going into crisis at the moment and that's why he wants to you know There are people who have committed suicide because they have failed to find the diagnostic pathway We had such an example in croydon a couple of years ago The coroner was quite clear that there was a connection between this 50 year old individual Failing to get on the dying on the diagnostic pathway and his depression and suicide But have has any any concrete steps emerged from that? The answer Is no we had a 21 year old who committed suicide in croydon last year again The coroner made a connection between his inability to access the kind of services. He needed to meet his complex needs And and the suicide Tragic. Yeah, so let's talk about positive things that happen in croydon now. So Marla, what would you say that's something positive? We went to visit An out of hours service do you remember and it's not quite open yet that um, oh, what's it called youth? Oh legacy use club. That's it. Yeah, so it sounds like some positive stuff going on there So are they any closer to opening? Um, I believe they were going to open the summer. Yeah, and um, so yeah I've been checking back and And waiting for you know to find out when it's actually going to open but it's supposed to be very inclusive. Yeah And um, it's a huge organization and they've got different um at these um It's like social model if you like across the country and it looks really quite exciting So and they were talking to us about training for their staff and about the autism reality experience possibly the sensory bus going to Visit them so they can get a little bit more of an insight what it's like to have a sensory overload So that's the thing as well with our children There's not a lot going on out there for out of hours if you like after school clubs Just just one sentence on the new legacy zone, which is a great initiative, but autistic children are not going to feel comfortable if they're going to be Couple with another part of the target audience of the legacy zone, which is youngsters who are at risk of Uh getting a criminal record who might be involved in life crime now autistic children are not going to be Comfortable in that kind of environment. So it's got to be very we've got to be very careful how we set it up If it's going to be a comfortable environment for our autistic community, too Okay So we're going to talk a little bit more about the positive things that happen within croydon And we're going to be talking about a little bit more. What do we do to relax? How do we de-stress because that's we live in a stressful world and especially when you have a child on the autism spectrum So I always try and promote because for 10 years i've forgotten about myself I was so focused on what I was doing setting up a school about looking after my sons And it's you need to do something to release the stress that builds up during the week So we're talking about well-being for women We're at women's radio station and we're at common garden. If you'd like to be one of my speakers, please Can you contact me on? www.anna kennedy online.com you can follow me on twitter, which is at anna kennedy 1 Instagram anna kennedy ob or facebook anna kennedy online Welcome to women's radio station. I'm sarah louise ryan and welcome to love lessons live on women's radio station Hello and welcome to future classic women awards with me stephanie pasamante on women's radio station Hello and welcome to julene is listening. Hi This is anna kennedy and we're at women's radio station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism women The possibilities are endless That's what makes us different Hi, i'm falguni desai of action coach. Are you a business owner with more than five employees? Do you want to grow your business? I'm a london-based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit I will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework To find out more contact me on o double 7 2 1 6 5 4 6 4 0 And book your one-hour complementary one-to-one coaching session. Thank you Hi, i'm tracy weeden of brownhill insurance group We are an award-winning family-run insurance broker covering a wide range of insurance products Ranging from commercial lines to personal household high net worth and fine art. You can contact us on 0208 658 4 3 3 4 or visit our website www.brownhillgroup.co.uk for your free no obligation quotation at brownhills. We've got you covered Hi, i'm carolyn van viers. Please join me for a brand new show here on women's radio station It's mother's hour If like me you're a mom juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them This is definitely the show for you We'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together With spoonfuls of advice incredible stories. It will be refreshing honest and funny. Look at being a mom Hi, i'm valentina barbachi and i'm the executive director of media matters for women We're a registered charity operating in sierra leon and the democratic republic of congo And we produce and share podcasts via bluetooth and mobile phones focusing specifically on women and girls Excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms How they access own and share information to find out more and be part of this movement Come check out our website at media matters for women org Women's radio station can give a voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities Including individual programs. We can tailor your experience to you For more information on how you can sponsor a show go to women's radio station dot com Women the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different Hello, this is anna kennedy and we're talking all things autism we're live in coven garden And i'm going to share one more of our performers. Um, that's going to be performing on autism's got talent, which is on saturday So we've got 18 people from across the country from india from ireland that are going to be showcasing their talent So i'm going to be talking about now ollie ollie is 14 years old and has a diagnosis of autism He is now home educated as when at school. He was constantly bullied and misunderstood Ollie found comfort through dance and it's now a crew member at street factory in plimith Ollie refers to this as his happy place I've seen many videos of him on instagram on facebook on twitter that he shares And it's his happy place. He feels free and can be himself without being judged Ollie's confidence is growing daily and i'm so proud of how far he has come. I admire his strength and his Determination he's so excited about performing on saturday. He cannot wait. He keeps messaging me on instagram So again, if you'd like to come along to autism's got talent It's at the mermaid theater the doors open at six o'clock The show starts at seven o'clock and it's at black fryers and it's right near the tube station Or if you want to drive the car park is next door So my guests today are jerry fix patrick from croydon one of the autism champions and joined by jerry We have had aron who's been doing some work experience looking after my charity website And he's going to be writing an article and looking after the newsletter and his mom marla who's one of my charity champions So we are talking about Relaxation What do you do to relax marla because it can be quite stressful? So what do you do to relax? It can and that's something you inspired me and it was actually zumba. Okay, and And from the back of that there's been zumba thons in croydon as you know every year, but zumba I think it's a really good Distress for me personally. It's fun. It's fun. It's good music and And it's just about having a good time and just forgetting everything for an hour Yeah, and I think it's so important and that's what does it for me? Yeah, because we've had quite a few moms that have come to the zumba thon and we have such a laugh Don't we have such a good time? And then we have a little chat afterwards. We'll have a drink, you know juice and a cake or whatever it is But you just need that little bit of time to where you just don't think of anything You know, you've got all your worries you leave them behind and then you go back to them later, but you can Tackle them if you like from a different angle because you've got a lot of stress out of your body. Jerry, what do you do to relax? Because I say first of all, we've got a wonderful organization in croydon called timeout for autism carers. Okay. Can I mention that first? Yeah, okay, then very positive thing. I hope it other boroughs have a similar thing purely sort of voluntary group started by a mum of two autistic teenagers and they Paint and they do music and they bake cakes and all that kind of stuff. So that's very good And in terms of me Well, the thing actually I like doing the most to relax. It sounds really um dull I've got quite a few recreational activities, but what I really like to do is to watch golf Okay, and I don't play golf if have you ever played the few occasions i've picked up a golf club I've been a laughing stock of family and friends, but I like watching it on the telly and I record because i'm not in When it's on so I record it. So when i've got half an hour, maybe i'm on my exercise bike or late in the evening I I just like watching the golf. I like the psychology and the competitive bit about it So that's what I do to relax most so you're a tiger woods fan then I I very much admire the fact that he's come back after really Very grave injuries and he's come back in his mid 40s to be something like the player He was 20 years ago. That's an amazing personal achievement on his part. But obviously I I do like the british players to win if not the british players the european players to win whoever it is, especially when we're If we're beating the nothing wrong with americans, but you know, they're full of themselves at gold. So When we beat american players, i'm going yeah Marley you wanted to touch on social care Um, so what is it that you wanted to share with everyone? Um, I mean regarding social care seems to be a closed book from the experience i've had with other parents and carers in croydon in particular and Well, not croydon in particular but general consensus there and um, there's nothing specific about it and there seems to be very Or next to nothing like social care assessment, which is actually meant to be part of the hc process And this is something i've sort of struggled with personally as well Okay, so say for example, someone's listening again, that's just going through the process What do you believe happens in a social care assessment? It's everything the activities outside of the 93 of school Which obviously autism doesn't stop at three o'clock And I think it's really important for children and adults to have somewhere They can go to i've heard of like rap courses in croydon and that's something i've just started looking into Okay, and it's just about school holidays and it's about Short breaks and and things like that, but it's not very clear Yeah, and it's not very well signposted and that was something that has Sort of caused me to answer that question during the summer holidays It's like you're always searching for places where you think your son or daughter might, you know be able to um, you know cope really if you like Um, because obviously when the children of school there's cues which our children find difficult now I tend to go to parks I tend to go early in the morning because there's less people there because like my son angela even though he's 26 You know i'm always looking for places. He's quite profoundly affected by his autism So I need to find places that are not going to affect his sensory overload if you like um, so parks is a good place for us, so i'd go to lots of different parks and You know go early in the morning You've got to find the right time that's going to suit you and suit your son or your daughter jerry Did you want to say something? Yeah local authorities have got to put on a local offer for young people whether it's effective or not is of course is another matter but I would like to see Local authorities having to put together a local offer for adults too things which what the people autistic might participate in and enjoy Of course for that to happen local government needs additional resources not continually being stuffed by central government Um as as we have been over the last decade of Austerity, there is so much more that agencies like local government could do working with voluntary agencies, of course in in providing uh both Opportunities and signposting to opportunities. It's very much needed for adults as well as children Yeah, what's needed for adults as well is to help with dating because the thing is they get so stressed They don't know what to say, you know, they don't know what the rules are they can misread Situations, you know like one particular gentleman that I remember he went with his carer luckily Went into a pub saw a young lady that he really liked didn't realize the person sitting next to her Was her boyfriend and he went up to her and asked her if she wanted a drink and then he got up and get ready to throttle him and then luckily the carer stepped in and said Hey, you know this young man is on the autumn spectrum and it was all fine Um, so there's not much out there at all in the dating world And I know that from my own son my uh elder son patrick He finds it difficult to speak to a girl as in a friend It's fine as soon as he may think he might have some interest He just doesn't know what to say and will do whatever he can to sabotage it because he knows what the outcome's going to be For that so there's just not a lot out there for um, our young people in the dating So dating agencies specialist dating agencies will be great I've heard of a few but there some of them are quite expensive to join talking about 700 to a thousand pound to join one Of these agencies and obviously it's not guaranteed that you're going to meet someone So that would be good in croydon if we could or maybe the anaconda online dating agency What else do you want me to do? There you go mala there's a project for you So, is there anything else that you want to share about croydon and your role as a charity champion? Not a charity champion mala's the charity champion as an autism champion Yeah, I just like to say that I hope that other local authorities might do something like our here autism initiative That out of that will come local autism strategies that actually address local needs more effectively than they're being Addressed at the moment. It's going to need It's going to need more Cash expended and that is a matter of also central government resourcing. It's important to say And but also but something like here autism I think can Provide a record of what autism people are thinking and feeling there is a continuous record that is there and it's something I hope that will be built on as Something that is concrete and can continue to touch the conscience of the neurotypical Population about the great deal that still needs to be done to serve the needs of the neuroatypical communities So if people want to find out a bit more about here autism, they just type in on google here h e a r autism I wish I was Technologically enough advanced to say that is the case but if they want they can They can email me as an individual and that's jerry with a j j double r y dot fitzpatrick croydon dot gov dot uk and I I can then answer Any points that are raised and hopefully there are attachments that I can send to people about what it's about We haven't yet got it onto a gone to a website. I'm sorry. That's okay So awesome champion, does that take up a lot of your time? How many hours a week? Do you have to put into I I don't have to put in any hours during the period of the autism? The here autism initiative i'm putting in a heck of a lot. I haven't sought to quantify it's made my recreational life quite Lessen it than it might be and also it cuts across other things. I ought to be doing as a counselor So it is probably at the moment over the last Three or four months the here autism stuff has been taking Maybe 20 hours a week when considering all the other things I do as a counselor is probably a very significant proportion of my Of my time, you know, it's great to hear jerry is your passionate in your voice and the way you talk about it So I can see that you want to do a really good job It's not just a title for you because I have met people before where they've got a title And you just don't hear that passion and drive in their voice But I can hear it in your voice and I think you're going to make a difference in croydon So I want to say thank you for coming along and taking the time out. Uh, marla Thank you for stepping in at the last minute.com. It's a pleasure and also Thank you for being my charity champion. Uh, you do a fantastic job And I also want to say thank you to aaron and I hope you enjoy The rest of your experience and you're coming to autism's got talent as a reporter I believe so you're going to be interviewing maybe a few of the families some of our celebrities So look out for aaron's article that will be appearing on anna kennedy online So if you're interested in being one of my speakers, please contact me on Www dot anna kennedy online And if you want to chat to me or send me a tweet again It's at anna kennedy one on twitter anna kennedy online on facebook anna kennedy ob e on instagram Thank you very much and goodbye Women's radio station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion Connecting women around the world in a global network is all about diversity From the opinions career ethnicity education We aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and a platform for your voice Women the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different Hi, i'm liz van linden the uk travel consultant for hazelmaid travel People come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalized service This happens from the moment that they inquire till they come back here. I work with luxury tour operators You can contact me on 07825 4 4 12 12 and liz spelled l i s at hazelmaid travel dot k dot uk I'm tamina zaman founder of empower and enrich when it comes to money. Do you climb up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone many women want to be smarter with their cash, but just don't know where to start At empower and enrich dot org You will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances And learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy affordable way Get in touch with me at empower and enrich dot org and let's change your future together Are you struggling with money? 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