Andreas: Help for Autistic Families in Slovakia

Palko has been carrying this ball around the house for the last six years. We bought it on a pump station on our way to Croatia. Always when we go somewhere, Palko leaves it at the door on the radiator and when we come home he takes it and continues carrying it around. In the evening, when he goes to bed, he puts it next to his bed. 

 For parents without parents is a project, that gives parents of children with autism an opportunity to gain new strengths. In Autistic center Andreas we organize short time stays for children with autism. During that time their parents can devote their time and energy to their own hobbies and activities.

Since January 2015 to april 2015 we had organized four two-day stays for three grown-up "children" with autism

Life writes various stories and our family also has its own. Our family is: me - mother Andrea, father Palo, daughter Petra and son Palko.

 Palko is a young man. He is 21 years old and also an autist. It is meaningless and depressing to think about what it would be like if he was healthy. We have known that he is autistic since he was two years old. Palko doesn’t talk and understands this world only through pictures. Palko is attending the last year of practical school in Bratislava.  

Our day is usually stereotyped. We get up at six in the morning, then breakfast, hygiene, dressing.... We get into the car to be at the school at seven and I continue to my work for 8 hours, in the afternoon I run for Palko to the school and make shopping on the way. When we get home, Palko must eat as the first one. He is the hungry one :-) Afterwards I bath him. Palko can dress to pyjamas by himself and is in bed by five. He listens to his CD and comes to the living room around seven in the evening, sits on the sofa and watches TV with us. Sometimes he checks what is in the fridge, if something was supplied or changed. This is basically every day the same. Sometimes, just to have a change, we stop at grandma’s for coffee on our way home. 

 I would like to sleep enough and rest during the weekend, but somehow that is not possible. Palko throws slippers to my bed at six in the morning, opens my wardrobe and stands there. He waits until I get up and make him breakfast. His father works shifts and spends a lot of time at work. That means that virtually all care of Palko is on me.

 Palko’s sister Petra is 16. She is a very active girl, goes to artistic school, plays the guitar, and loves rafting. She likes people and company. It often strikes me how nice it would be to get out of this stereotype, to go and do some activity in three, to stop worrying at least for a moment whether everything is all right for Palko and won’t distress him. At least once not to burden grandparents with watching over him and enjoy the "freedom in the head" knowing that he is well taken care of.

And I am thankful that thanks to services provided by the Autistic centre Andreas I am able to leave Palko in the centre Andreas for longer than just a few hours or during the night or weekend.
"When I know that Palko is fine, our day is simply nicer and merrier".