Book review: “Why can’t you hear me?”

ABSTRACT

In this book, Andy and Amanda McCulloch tell the story, through a combination of their own memories, diaries and Colette’s own writings and drawings, of the years she was treated for dyslexia, an eating disorder and mental health issues while her autism went unrecognised. What is particularly distressing and clearly expressed in this book is the failure of the facility that claimed to specialise in the care and support of adults on the autistic spectrum to recognise that both Colette and her parents were “experts by experience” and best able to assist the “experts by profession” to best meet her care and support needs. In fairness to Andy and Amanda, they do recognise that professionals and agencies had been labouring under a period of government-imposed austerity that had reduced the resources available to them to provide care and support services.