Help my sister cope with her Selective Mutism

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My sister got the funding for her special school. She’s nervous but I think she’s excited aswell. She’s going in for just two morning’s a week for now but as she builds up to it she can start going in more when she feels she can cope and eventually will be staying residential, sharing a room with other girls.
I’m so excited for her. I know it will be difficult for her but thankfully my uni timetable gives me Mondays & Fridays off so I can go home on Thursday evenings and spend more time with her, helping her to adjust and stay positive although I’m sure she won’t need much of my help with that! :D

“You should have no problem.”
“We’ll get the answer to you by Monday.”
“They can’t refuse you.”

Empty promises, hopeful lies. Even the people on our side, cheering us on, those that could help us, let us down immensely. It’s constant battle. A decision should’ve and could have been made a week and a half ago. Instead a case worker that has no idea of the situation tells us we’ll hear back by 18th August. Delaying tactics are costing my sister her health and sanity all to avoid extra costs if they can. Anyone with the answers tries their best to avoid the situation.
We can’t get anywhere without making threats which is difficult as everyone my family are peaceful people. We have to be mean and menacing and obnoxious to get any sort of answer or reaction and that’s not right. Not when a child has been denied health care and an education for atleast a decade.

Recently we’ve viewed a few schools. Some specialist schools, some mainstream. We really want Jen to be able to go to a specialist school that would have the understanding & patience for her and she could have more confidence in. All the schools are about an hour away so she would have to stay over night but she’s surprisingly excited by this. I think she’s sick of being stuck in the house, trusts that places know what they’re doing & probably wants a change and a challenge.
At first when we went to view them my sister was unable view them or even step away from the car so we stayed in the car while our parents viewed them. We’ve just viewed 2 of the schools and after seeing both of them she instantly asked when she could go and if she could move in now and wants to view the last specialist school.
She’s so excited by the thought of going to one of these schools it sometimes puts her on a low, she wants to go now, she can’t wait any longer. We’ll just have to see if we can pursuade the local education authority which I doubt…

Should I aim to raise awareness on Selective Mutism or focus solely on helping my sister? I feel as though first option would be very time consuming and would take a lot of time that could be used to help my sister fight against it.
But if I focus on my sister before anything else I would gain a further personal experience that I can use to inform what does & doesn’t help those selectively mute. Also by helping her she could help to become involved in raising awareness also giving her something to strive towards?
Before I do anything I need a better understanding of Selective Mutism psychologically, scientifically & personally so I can relate to it. Time to hit the books!

My sister has this anxiety disorder and it causes her pain every single day of her life. Selective Mutism is a social anxiety disorder where the sufferer will speak only in certain situations despite the ability to understand spoken language & to speak. My sister will only speak to a select few people at home. Outside of the home her selective mutism takes over and effects her physically and mentally, she is unable to speak & has very stiff movements.
Selctive Mutism not only effects her outside of the house, it’s asthough there’s a constant fear and panic of past & future events. This has caused depression and she is increasingly unable to leave the house.
My sister is unable to get any help for this disorder that has consumed almost all of the life. We only found a name to the distructive problem by accident after an assessment that couldn’t be followed through because she couldn’t speak. She had been called arrogant by teachers & psychologists had literally shrugged there shoulders at us when they were the only people to help us. She is now home schooled, this has helped but the only psychological help my sister can get is from her families support.
There is almost no knowledge of this disorder, even amongst experts such as clinical & educational psychologists and speech therapists which means nothing is being done to help usually making matters worse; like telling someone with depression to “cheer up” they believe forcing her in to situations she cannot handle will be the cure, as though she’ll speak and suddenly realise she can & that it’s alright to.