Autism Care Provider Reacts to BBC TV Documentary ‘The Autistic Me’

LONDON - Commenting on last night’s BBC Three documentary which followed the lives of three young people living with Autism and Asperger syndrome (’The Autistic Me’, BBC Three, 9pm, 11th August 2009), Lesa Walton - Care & Development Director of specialist Autism care provider Brookdale Care - said today:

“The programme makers and especially the three young people living with Autism and Asperger syndrome featured in the documentary are to be congratulated on aiding public understanding of Autism and associated Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC), which affect one in every hundred people in the UK.

“As the documentary showed, three of the biggest challenges that people living with ASC face are the transition from adolescence to adulthood, social integration and acceptance and finding employment.

“It was commendable, therefore, that the programme highlighted not only the importance to people living with ASC of having structure and routine in any job, but also the issues surrounding employment opportunities for those living with ASC.

“The programme noted the praiseworthy work of the National Autistic Society in finding Oli, one of the young men featured, a temporary job in the British Library. What is needed now is more consistent support nationally from the education and care services to enable more people living with ASC to find the employment that they find rewarding.

“Brookdale Care hopes that the documentary ‘The Autistic Me’ will help bring this about by raising the awareness of the immense contribution that so many people living with ASC can make, and dispelling the myths that still surround Autism and Asperger syndrome.”

You can watch ‘The Autistic Me’ again on the BBC iplayer: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m5jb4/The_Autistic_Me/

For more information call +44(0)207-819-6268 or click: www.brookdalecare.co.uk/autism-news/article/608/The-Autistic-Me

Source: Brookdale Care

Contact: Natasha Graham, +44(0)207-819-6268, Email: brookdale.pressoffice at googlemail.com