Raising funds for Autism and Mental Health

Hello my name is Lois and I have made the decision to start a charitable fund to contribute to the lives of autistic people who are struggling to access mental health support. For some context, the journey to this point is to do with a member of my family who is autistic and who has been in crisis for the majority of their life. As an autistic person struggling with mental health, they have lived in a world that they have struggled to process, struggled to communicate in and struggled to find a purpose within. They have reached out multiple times and never has any support worked. It’s either the support doesn’t understand, doesn’t give them time or doesn’t assess and take them for who they are. Over this past year they made the decision to attempt to end their life once again. They went through the nhs social care crisis team and were discharged after a short while for being complex and that they couldn’t understand their thought processes, in the end they told me to “Google other types of support out there or to look into going private.” Whilst we feel let down again that the support just isn’t there to the extent needed in the nhs, we realise that we always end up back in the same situation… with the help not being the right fit and discharging and the heavy realisation that there is a life on the line and little-no chances or hope left. After the latest attempt, they told me it was unfair to keep asking them to live in a world that they don’t want to live in… Now I found this really hard to counteract because there is rationality in their words. How can I keep asking when nothing seems to be getting better for them? We are hoping to access private healthcare, to start once again with a full psychological assessment with followed up ongoing care and support. The difficulty is we are unable to get private health insurance due to these circumstances so will need to full cost pay. There is no way to say that this will be the right answer or that the support will even work, but I believe everyone deserves a chance and the cost of a life is priceless to me. I want them to see that people do care and that they are not ‘unhelpable’. I know that this is only going to be the start of their journey but I just hope there is even a journey from here… My intention for the fund is to raise money to pay towards my family member getting privately funded and specialised support. My future hopes for this fund is to annually donate the money to another individual who is in a similar situation, which unfortunately and scarily is more common than you think. Myself and my family and friends will be doing various charitable events and fundraisers. We welcome all support and are grateful for your time x