WHEN Maree Webb’s three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism and severe learning disabilities, the only advice she was given was to go home and read up on the subject.

Thankfully, things have moved on in the last 15 years and there is now a huge amount of support for youngsters of pre-school and primary school age and their families.

But it’s a very different story at the other end of the scale.

Lindsey is now 18 and will be leaving the special school she attends in Poole next year.

“We’ve just transferred her to adult services,” said Maree, from Wessex Avenue, Shillingstone.

“There’s a very good respite up to 18, then you drop off the face of the earth. There’s nothing out there, not in Dorset anyway.

“At the moment we have a couple of weekends a month respite, but she can’t go to any clubs or anything in the evenings because she doesn’t cope with crowds.

“There’s no specialist leisure or anything for people with learning disabilities, particularly teenagers.”

Lindsey’s conditions make it difficult for Maree to take her to activities aimed at children without learning disabilities.

In fact, many families choose to stay at home with their children rather than go out into the community, so they feel increasingly isolated, and the child’s condition deteriorates.

“For example, Lindsey’s incontinent so you have all that to deal with in the public domain,” explained Maree.

“Because she can’t cope with things, you get screaming or odd noises, spinning around or jumping up and down. “I have to have her on a wrist strap. That gets a lot of comments from people in public. But she can suddenly bolt across a road or out from a venue that we’re in.

“That’s why we need to go to specific venues that are more secure, but there’s nothing purpose-built for these people.”

Maree has been campaigning for several years for better service provisions for teenagers and young adults in Lindsey’s position and has talked to many other parents in her quest to highlight the issue.

She has found that, in desperation, many end up taking their children to day centres aimed at older people, or even sending them away to residential respite.

“I did a survey when Lindsey was five or six and the same problems cropped up then. Lots of families I speak to have had to send their children away. They didn’t want to, but there was no other choice,” she said.

“We’re trying to get Lindsey into a specialist college in Somerset but we don’t want her to go away. The consultant said to us years ago it would be better if she went to residential care, but I just can’t do that.”

Maree said there was a real need for specialist education after school, as many children were not ready to leave at the age of 18, for some sort of leisure service to address all their needs and for respite care for teenagers and young adults.

“It would be so nice to take them somewhere and to not have all the mainstream teenagers taking the mickey and the parents not having to explain why they’re behaving the way they do.

“You don’t tend to get so many severe behaviours if you can keep them happy. Lindsey self-harms if she’s bored so you’ve got to keep her moving on from one thing to the next.

“Also once they’re at home after they leave school they lose skills. You can lose such a lot of work that’s been put in if it’s not carried on.”

Maree is keen to contact other parents of autistic teenagers or those with severe learning disabilities to add weight to her campaign.

She is also talking to MPs and local councillors and has even considered putting an advert in the national press appealing to rich celebrities who could fund a purpose-built centre or leisure facility in the county.

“There’s just nothing in Dorset. You have to go miles away out of the county,” said Maree.

“It shouldn’t be like that. You should be able to have your children at home.”

For details email mareewebb@btinternet.com.