First meeting to support dads with neurodiverse children held in Rotherham
“We spoke a little about what support is on offer, and we all mentioned how once diagnosed you are expected to just get on with it.”
The Neurodiverse Dads Space is a peer-led mental health group for men who want a safe, welcoming space to talk, listen, and support one another.
The founder, Dean Whiteman, created the group because of his experience as a father to a neurodiverse child.
Four dads attended the first meeting, which was on Tuesday at 7pm.
Dean said: “The first meeting went very well, we had some great conversations and shared a lot of advice and information with each other.
“We spoke a little about what support is on offer, and we all mentioned how once diagnosed you are expected to just get on with it.
“If you are lucky enough to get assigned specialist support, they don’t often have any experience with neurodivergent children.”
The 33-year-old speaks from experience, and believes that locally more could be done to support those with neurodivergent children.
He says this could be a support system, or some form of emergency line that can be called when there is a crisis, or an experienced team that can come to visit and support people through tough times.
More children than ever are being diagnosed with autism, it will affect one in 36 children.
Mr Whiteman has said that fathers don’t need to wait for their child to receive a diagnosis to come to the sessions, as waitlists for this are so long.
46 per cent of dads raising children with additional needs said their mental health was negatively affected by their parenting responsibilities.
Dean said that all the dads who attended would be coming again, and that other dads have messaged him saying they would be attending sessions, too.