Inequities in quality of life improvement from neurodiversity acceptance can only be helped by expanding public social and human services not rationing to low functioning/intense needs

  AOT (assisted outpatient treatment), where an individual living with a disability is forced to take the assistance, is worthless if there isn't quality treatment to force someone into.  The person in need of help had intersectional (dual diagnosed) autism & MI symptoms. #ActuallyAutistic people should avoid knee-jerk dismissal of the column because the author used the archaic term ‘idiot savant autistic."


    
And then there are the hidden wounded, the too-often voiceless who are treated as though they are the living dead. They don’t seem to matter. Those whose souls are tormented, those with delusions, with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The mentally ill fight a battle every day — they battle to want to live, to not hurt others so they may live, to run from those who would take their life because the hidden wounds of mental illness are too often misunderstood.
These men and women often stay in the ER and triage area until the elusive open bed in a psychiatric ward is found. When that coveted prize the mentally ill need so desperately does appear, it is available for only a brief stay. And while in the psychiatric ward, patients with mental illness often are given a round of very serious medications — but they do not get to stay long enough to see whether those medications work.
On Dec. 27, I took my son to the emergency room. After 9 p.m. on the third day, we were still waiting for that promised treasure — the psychiatric bed. My son, a musically gifted soul in his early 20s, chose to go to the hospital, trying to be safe from himself, from the demons that cause havoc in his head.


The process for getting help for the people with mental illness in Prince George’s County is like running on a treadmill: It never ends. Nothing is ever easy or organized. I know Prince George’s isn’t the worst place for mental-health care, but it is where my son and I live, so it is of paramount importance to us.
While we were waiting in the emergency room, my son did not get his normal round of psychotropic medications (which I hate, but they supposedly keep him stable and sane), so I constantly had to remind the ER nurse about the reasons for his agitation and the mania phase of his bipolar and schizophrenic conditions. He is idiot savant autistic — musically, so he always has music in his head, sometimes accompanied by racing thoughts. This traffic in his head is what leads to the episodic series that plays out in the emergency room.




    The use of an archaic term is a result of one more parent not being helped by #neurodiversity #selfadvocacy equitably as much as other autistics without LTSS provided in HCBS who may have been forced to monetize their skills to earn income on patreon, ko-fi.com, substack.com or with #pitchwars mentorship.  


   Some #selfadvocates promoting #neurodiversity even deny they are disabled severely enough to perceive a personal need to seek services preferring to use the private messaging functions of facebook and twitter to stay in contact with real people they know in their personal social and professional networks. Using crowdfunding sites like patreon, substack or #pitchwars mentorship were last resort solutions after federal austerity to programs like Medicaid trickled down to local (county and municipality) and state government austerity that likely killed funding for supported or customized employment programs.  


   Federal Education department funds from OSERS (Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services) to state VR (vocational rehab) programs has also been grossly inadequate as well as not coordinated with ODEP (Office of Disability Employment Policy) at the Labor Department to adjust to changing labor market skill demands and job creation.  Those who didn’t raise enough money to live or lost #pitchwars mentor competitions are the practical equivalent of consumers who lose supports. Poverty has claimed another victim. Don’t disregard the author’s perspective because of knee-jerk language objections.  Current usage of an old term "idiot savant autistic" shows inequity and inequality in LTSS access in HCBS that self-advocate run organizations informed by #neurodiversity will never replace safety net with. The organizations don’t even try to. Instead self-advocate operated organizations attempt to narrow demand for expanded LTSS services in HCBS settings by stopping people from identifying themselves as severely disabled enough to apply, because they believe they don’t qualify, for services.

   Empowering individuals and focusing on strengths, to divide working and middle class even by unrealized aspirations not weaknesses, should be regarded by more people as code phrases for diversion of demand for social services to preserve what little is left for people who 'truly' need the services.  Confidentiality protects the inequity and inequality.  Telling people to have gratitude for what little one has is the spiritual, in the form of self-help rather than systemic help, not religious, opiate of the masses to silence calls to expand services by widening eligibility criteria.


  When I interviewed Maya Angelou for my book Bouncing Forward, she advised me to develop “an attitude of gratitude. You could have died last night, you know. Be grateful. Stand on the good foot. People like you better. And you like yourself better.”