Louise Camm-Crosbie|Louise Bradley|Rebecca Shaw|Simon Baron?Cohen|Sarah Cassidy
‘People like me don’t get support’: Autistic adults’ experiences of support and treatment for mental health difficulties, self-injury and suicidality
Coventry University|Coventry University|Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust|University of Cambridge|Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust|Coventry University|University of Cambridge|University of Nottingham
autistic people high risk mental health problems selfinjury suicidality however studies explored autistic peoples experiences treatment support difficulties partnership steering group autistic adults online survey developed explore individuals experiences treatment support mental health problems selfinjury suicidality first time total 200 autistic adults 122 females 77 males 1 unreported aged 1867 mean 389 years standard deviation 115 without cooccurring intellectual disability completed online survey thematic analysis openended questions resulted overarching theme individually tailored treatment support beneficial desirable consisted three underlying themes 1 difficulties accessing treatment support 2 lack understanding knowledge autistic people cooccurring mental health difficulties 3 appropriate treatment support lack impacted autistic peoples wellbeing likelihood seeing suicide future findings demonstrate urgent need autism treatment pathways mental health services