Hi
My 19 year old son is on the autism spectrum. He has
suffered for many years with conditions associated with this including
delusions and paranoia and is now on two different types of medication.
Current ongoing problems include executive functioning
skills self-care (washing, hygiene, choosing correct clothing to wear etc.,
food choices.) He cannot be trusted to manage his own medication at this time as he simply ‘forgets’
along with things like personal care. He also has major difficulties on public
transport as due to his size and demeanour he gets picked on so we take him everywhere.
He has previously self harmed, attempted suicide and had paranoia
and hallucinations. We couldn’t let him out of our sight and he could not be
trusted to travel independently and has had psychotic episodes for which we had
to get in touch with the Mental Health Crisis team.
Since taking this new medication we have seen a major change.
He still requires a lot of support, supervision and prompting etc. and needs
help managing his finances etc, but he has
recently passed an interview and got a job, in a call centre but it is basic
call handling. His new employers are aware of his condition and have so far
been very supportive towards him. He is
a little isolated and still has no friends, as social situations are still
difficult for him but this job seems to have helped his confidence and as parents, we are hopeful that he has turned a corner and that
this helps him to become more independent in the future.
My question is, when he was at his absolute worst when we 1st
claimed pip and at 16 years old and couldn’t be left alone, as parents we didn’t
think he would ever have an independent life so we were awarded high rate pip
for him. ( we had tonnes of paperwork from mental health teams associated with his care including proof of hospitalisation when he had a psychotic breakdown.) His conditions have improved and we have seen a major change in him
with this medication and the support us and his employers have given to him.
He is still autistic (always will be, there is no cure!) he
still needs prompting and guidance, needs to have his medication managed for
him etc., but it isn’t right for me to continue to claim the current amount so
will need this to be reviewed, I also want to put pip into his name, as I am in
my 50’s and wont live forever. I know this is classed as a change, please can
you advise how I go about this? Many thanks
