This summer I’ve been taking Dylan on overnight trips to different locations instead of for a week’s holiday to one place. Dylan loves staying in hotels and he responds well to variety so our summer trips have proved very successful so far. It also means that I am supporting Dylan for just 24 hours at a time which is sensible given that he is usually on 2:1 support ratios in the community. I love the time I spend with Dylan but it is demanding physically and mentally.
The overnight breaks have allowed me to take Dylan to places which are a little too far to travel to in a day but which we haven’t managed to visit from our previous holiday destinations. Recently we have enjoyed visits to Whipsnade Zoo and to see Anthony Gormley’s Another Place installation at Crosby Beach. My aim is to sprinkle these trips across the summer so that Dylan and I are able to enjoy the equivalent of a week away together.
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Taking a holiday myself is something that has been on my ‘bucket list’ since Dylan moved to residential care. Although I have had occasional weekends away over the years I’ve never been able to consider more than this. Once free of caring responsibilities, however, I still didn’t find it easy to contemplate. For the first half year I was focused on settling Dylan into his new home; as this involved regular visits there wasn’t the space for a break. Since then I’ve managed to find all sorts of reasons not to go away: work; decorating; poems; money. The usual excuses.
But sorting through drawers one day I found a voucher for ferry travel to France. A few years ago, when Dylan was very anxious and his ‘challenging behaviour’ at its height, I decided to cancel a holiday. Although I had travelled alone to France with Dylan before, it didn’t seem wise that summer. The holiday company with whom I had booked the gîte weren’t sympathetic but Brittany Ferries didn’t hesitate to issue me with a voucher for replacement travel. I had filed it away, assuming it would be used when Dylan was settled enough to travel at some point in the future. Suddenly, it seemed, the future had arrived: the voucher was due to expire August 20th this year.
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Since Dylan has moved to residential care I’ve realised, and come to accept, that he needs more support than I can give. Dylan benefits from 2:1 support in the community and responds positively to a ‘fresh face’ at times of anxiety; having access to more than one adult, so that a support worker can be strategically swapped, is good for Dylan and a more positive experience for his carer(s). These are things which aren’t possible when supporting Dylan alone. This is partly why I’m limiting the time I am in sole charge of him this summer and explains why, with some sadness, I have decided that it’s not possible for me to take Dylan to France by myself again.
But what to do about the voucher? Without it I would probably have hummed my way through the summer, fiddling with paint and trying to write a poem. It pained me, however, to sacrifice those ferry crossings. So oh joy and delight when a girlfriend declared she would be happy to put up with accompany me to Brittany for a week. Fantastic. We agreed easily on a location and gîte. Figuring out the crossings and bicycle rack was a bit trickier but we worked it out. What I was especially looking forward to, I told my friend, was reading on the ferry. During Channel crossings with my children I had watched others doing this and hankered after such space. Instead of having to hire a cabin for meltdowns and timeouts, and be on high alert, this time I could relax with a book.
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Planning the holiday wasn’t all plain sailing, however. In fact I had a whole bag of worries about it which I discussed at length with the manager of Dylan’s residential home. How would Dylan manage the longer than usual gap between my visits? What would we tell him and how? If there was an emergency, how would I be contacted? What if I couldn’t be contacted? These might be quotidian worries but they are not insignificant in the context of autism where happiness depends so much on reassuring routines.
Facing these anxieties and challenges seemed to be a necessary next step in the transition process, however. The parents of other residents, I was told, had experienced similar anxieties the first time they had left their son or daughter in order to take a holiday by themselves. The staff would keep Dylan busy while I was away, I was assured, and make sure that his favourite activities were scheduled. Confident that I had considered the situation from all angles, I booked the trip.
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What I hadn’t factored in, however, was Daesh. As the attacks in Europe increased in frequency and scope, the possibility of being caught in a random act of violence ratcheted up my anxiety. Rather than worrying about how Dylan would cope with my temporary absence, I started to consider the implications of my not coming back at all. The scenario was awful but not unthinkable. We are more likely to be victims of a traffic accident, my friend pointed out, especially on the wrong side of the road. She was right. Why then was Daesh increasing my anxiety about being away from Dylan?
Having a dependent child or adult to care for makes us feel vulnerable. In such a situation there can be a tendency to become risk-averse, as I explore in this post. But what are the implications for autistic children and adults at times of conflict? I reflected on some possibilities in this post and in this book review. When I wrote those posts, not so very long ago, the war in Syria felt like news from another country. Now, suddenly, it involves us all.
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I thought I’d let you know, I told Dylan’s care home manager, that I’m having second thoughts about my trip to France. I probably would go, I told her, but I was trying to think through the implications of the recent attacks. I needed to be comfortable with my decision, I explained, or else I wouldn’t be able to relax. Earlier that day I’d watched a public information video about what to do in the event of a ‘terrorist attack’. The advice came down to this: Run, Hide, Tell. I watched the video through trying to imagine how I’d follow the guidance if I were with Dylan. It made no reference to people with disabilities or the vulnerable. It seemed to assume we are all fit, agile, able-bodied and verbal.
It would be impossible to keep Dylan safe in such a situation. He wouldn’t follow an instruction to run. He doesn’t understand the concept ‘hide’. He would behave erratically and probably noisily, drawing attention to himself and others. One of the pieces of advice in the video is to always show yourself to be empty-handed, particularly at point of rescue. This is important, apparently, because police might otherwise assume you are holding a weapon and mistake you for a terrorist. There is no way that I could persuade Dylan to show you his hands; in the community he hangs tight onto the arm of whoever is supporting him, burying his hands deep under their arms. If police are casting around for someone likely to be concealing a weapon, Dylan may well arouse their suspicion.
So I asked the care home manager what training staff had received for managing a ‘critical incident’ while supporting a resident in the community. Was this covered as part of staff training? And given the current level of anxiety among the general public, were staff aware that the erratic behaviour of a resident might cause alarm and suspicion in the community? The manager assured me that staff had received training for explaining autistic behaviour to the general public but couldn’t, of course, allay my fears about a terrorist incident. I think we just have to get on with our lives, she said.
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I’d been letting three things get in the way of me and Dylan living our lives: my anxieties about his ability to survive an incident; my concerns about my own safety given his dependence on me; and my worries about not being there for him.
But my response to these anxieties, I realised, had been what my daughter would call ‘cotton wool’. Would you put that cotton wool back in your pocket? she asked me one day as I told her to take care on some play equipment. I suspect I’ve never quite taken the cotton wool from Dylan but I have, at least, learned to let go of it a bit since he moved to residential care. But wrapping myself in cotton wool instead? I can only imagine what my daughter would say to that.
Happily, the friend I will be holidaying with understands these anxieties and has listened while I talk them through. Something I’ve found useful is identifying a practical response to an anxiety: things that we will and will not do while we are away, for example, and how we would travel home in an emergency. Such concrete plans feel better than the softest of cotton wool – even if, in truth, they probably wouldn’t be much use. I suppose that’s also the point of Run, Hide, Tell…
wishing you a safe and happy summer…
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The photos of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place (on Crosby Beach) were taken by Liz, July 2016.