My five year old son Jake has been diagnosed with ASD Autism Spectrum Disorder. We are trying to raise money to provide Jake with a Safe Space bed because his condition is getting worse and we as a family are struggling to cope with Jake’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Over the past few months Jake’s behaviour has become very hard to deal with as he needs constant supervision at all times. For example when left alone in his bedroom Jake will use his radiator to climb onto his window sill. His managed to knock his radiator off the wall three times already when doing this. Jake bangs his head and has no fear of danger. The safe space bed would create a safe environment for Jake and would provide the family with some respite because of the amount of care he requires. Jake hardly sleeps and this has a knock on effect on the whole family getting enough sleep to cope with the day ahead. My wife Claire has had to give up her job to care for Jake and the whole situation is becoming more challenging every day. Jake has not been potty trained and smears quite often, smearing faeces all over his body and bedroom, he does not understand how unhygienic this is. A safe space would make containing these episodes a lot easier as the space is waterproof and easily cleaned whereas at the moment he wipes faeces onto his walls and into his carpet. Jake’s actions are becoming worse and we are hoping to raise enough money so we can provide him with somewhere safe to be. We have tried local council’s to see if there is any funding but we have unfortunately been told that there are no funds available. This safe space would prevent Jake from doing all of the above and would help the whole family immensely.
We have contacted the local Occupational Therapist who fully agrees that Jake requires this type of product at home to keep him safe.Any help would be gratefully received, we just want to give our son Jake the best quality of life we can under these extremely difficult circumstances.