Published on 12, July, 2020
To me there still seems to be a gap in the market, with most resources focussing on autistic children and young adults and hardly anything for older people. So it makes a change to see a video on the experience of older autistic people. We could really due with resources that cover the whole lifespan, I think, including end of life care (my unidentified autistic dad died on a busy, noisy ward (radio 2 blaring constantly, as if this would automatically be helpful to patients) which, even though I wasn't aware of our neurodivergence even just a few years ago, I know would have made him much less comfortable).Dad enjoyed peace and quiet, or maybe a little Radio 4 and I remember thinking that it was a pity he wouldn't wear earphones (great difficulty putting up with anything around his head or face, including glasses). We all need and deserve much better as we grow older. www.youtube.com/watch
I'd like to see some analysis of the cohorts used in these studies. I've seen the figure of 54 bandied about too. It's good in a way, as it draws attention to the difficulties we face and obviously charities will use it for that reason. However, it can also be very anxiety provoking. If I took it seriously (I really don't), I guess I'd be led to believe that I'm living on borrowed time!
I believe my father had autism undiagnosed and he lived into his 80's. Hope that gives people hope.
I think this is the basis of it. A large Swedish study, leading to teh article
by Hirvikoski et al.
Not sure how flawed or otherwise the methodology is, my brain isn't good with that stuff.