Published on 12, July, 2020
petition.parliament.uk/.../221033
The link to this petition was originally shared by NAS37934 (and corrected by Cassandro) in the ‘Blogging with autism’ thread, but it’s not very visible there so I thought I would put it in a new thread in the hope that more people would see it.
Good to see it's got to over 27,000 signatures. If it can get to 100,000 I think it stands a good chance of being taken up by MPs. Is it also being supported by NAS? The way it's worded, this would benefit most of us one way or another, not just in dealing with crises and tragedies, but having our concerns understood, Hey, imagine, you might even have psychiatrists understanding neurodiversity instead of prescribing inappropriate treatments.
The petition reads:
Prevent avoidable deaths by making autism/learning disability training mandatory
My son Oliver was only 18 when he died in hospital on 11 Nov 2016. I believe his death could have been prevented if his doctors and nurses had received mandatory training. He had autism and a mild learning disability, and they weren't trained to understand how to make reasonable adjustments for him.1 in 4 healthcare professionals has never had training on learning disability or autism. This is unacceptable. Two thirds want more training, and 1 in 3 think a lack of government leadership is contributing to the problem of avoidable deaths. The Government must ensure all healthcare professionals get mandatory training to address the huge health inequalities facing people with autism and a learning disability. For more information search for: LeDeR report 2018; CIPOLD 2013; Treat me well 2018.
Maybe we can promote this, and highlight what happened to Oliver, through sympathetic friends and local organisations.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/221033
Cassandro said: Is it also being supported by NAS?
Sadly, I doubt it. When I once asked about a similar petition (about training for mental health professionals), they said they don’t support petitions as they get so many request to do so. I then asked them what they were doing about the problem themselves then, as mental health problems affect many individuals with autism and we need proper help for them, but I got a response basically saying they had campaigned for GPs to have more awareness of autism. What that had to do with mental health professionals I have no idea! I asked again specifically about mental health problems and linked studies and personal anecdotes, but I never got a response from the NAS despite repeated chasing. I then gave up as it was clear they didn’t care.
The above is a great petition though, and I hope it gets the 100,000 signatures (it’s doing well so far). It’s just so sad that the family have had to suffer such a loss for this issue to be highlighted to people.
Just to mention that it was brought up yesterday at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for autism (NAS-sponsored), by the 'minister for care', Caroline Dinenage. So at least her aides were aware it had 25,000 signatories. Hope we can push it further.
There was discussion of training GPs (through the Royal College), and some people brought up lack of post-diagnostic support for adults, but there wasn't a chance to discuss training of psychiatrists, who I think may be the biggest cause of iatrogenic harm to autistic people.