Health and wellbeing
We aim to understand factors that influence the health and wellbeing of Autistic people. These help to inform and enhance supports and practices across the lifespan.
RESEARCH PROGRAM LEADER: Associate Professor Darren Hedley
Researchers: Katy Unwin, Simon Bury, Cheryl Dissanayake, Amanda Richdale, Lauren Lawson, Melanie Muniandy
We achieve these aims through advocacy and policy development, academic research, and working with Autistic people.
We have:
- trained the workforce to better support the health and wellbeing needs of Autistic workers
- developed suicide prevention tools and education programs
- delivered training to allied health professionals
- conducted research in the areas of anxiety, depression, sleep, and suicide prevention.
The high rate of suicide and co-occurring health and other conditions makes the Autistic community a priority group for action. Policies that improve access to high quality allied healthcare delivered by a trained and experienced workforce are critical. This work needs to be underpinned by high quality research that meets the priorities and goals of Autistic people.
IN THE MEDIA
- Suicidal behaviours and prevention in Autistic youth - AUTISM ADVOCATE Parenting Magazine
- Research to reduce insomnia in Autistic adults
- What are ‘masking’ and ‘camouflaging’ in the context of Autism and ADHD?
- Suicidal behaviors and prevention in Autistic youth
- Cracking Autism’s sleep conundrum
- Website to prevent suicide
- Autistic children’s sleep problems linked to behavioral regulation issues
- Strategies for helping Autistic children (and their families) get a good night's sleep
- Landmark summit on Autism health care kicks off
The Suicide Response Project (SRP)
The SRP provides tips for the general public on how to detect and respond to suicide risk in others.
Depression and Anxiety
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS; Zigmond et al.,1983). The HADS scale measures anxiety and depression symptoms in the past week. Using a sample of 45 SASLA (Australian sample) + 151 UK Transition longitudinal study (UK sample) Autistic adolescents and young adults, we found that the HADS demonstrated statistically similar properties in the Autistic sample to a non-autistic sample, with good Internal consistency.
Clinicians can use the HADS to measure anxiety and depression in Autistic adolescents and young adults aged 14-25 years.
Depression
Patient Health Questionaire-9 (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001). The PHQ-9 measures depression symptom severity and functional impairment in the last 2 weeks. Using an Australian sample of 346 Autistic + 235 community comparison participants from the SASLA and ALSAA studies ages 15-80 years, we found that the PHQ-9 demonstrated statistically similar properties in the Autistic sample to the non-autistic sample. There was excellent internal consistency for Autistic and community comparison samples.
Clinicians can use the PHQ-9 to measure depression in autistic youth and adults aged 15-80 years.
Recommendations from the 2021 Australasian Society for Autism Research “Health, Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention in Autism” Conference and Roundtable (led by Associate Professor Darren Hedley) were compiled into a report and policy brief.
An international panel with 50 percent Autistic representation convened by ASfAR released its findings for eliminating suicide within the Autistic community. The final report was published and distributed to stakeholders in June 2022.
- Raising awareness of the increased suicide
- risk within the Autistic community.
- Identifying gaps in research and practice.
- Identifying solutions and a course of action to reduce suicide behaviour and death by suicide within the Autistic community.
The Report and Policy Brief are a call to action for international governments and organisations to take a leadership position and address the problem of suicide and suicide-associated distress within the Autistic community.
The Campbell Collaboration
The Campbell Collaboration promotes positive social and economic change through the production and use of systematic reviews for evidence-based policy and practice. Associate Professor Darren Hedley conducted a systematic review of interventions for anxiety in Autistic children.
Mental Wellbeing for Autistic Young Adults
The Panel discussion featured OTARC’s Dr Simon Bury, OTARC Affiliate Dr Lauren Lawson and mental health advocate Jessica Davis, and offered practical advice, tips and knowledge for supporting mental wellbeing for Autistic young adults, their family members/carer or supporters and care professionals.