*WARNING* some may find this upsetting. Your feedback / opinions / recommendations welcome

I am so sorry for your loss. Sadly far too many autistic people have their lives prematurely cut short through no fault of their own. The life expectancy statistics for autistic people are shocking.

There is a huge gap in existing crisis services and the needs of autistic people are not being met. Mental health services do not have the training or understanding to know how to deal with us. Far too often autistic people are sectioned and detained in totally unsuitable and distressing hospital environments. Autistic people far too often become distrustful of support services, due to negative and traumatic past experiences.

Many autistic people struggle with verbal communication and telephone communication in particular. I certainly do. Yet almost all crisis services operate by telephone. The Samaritans have an email service but the turnaround time may be too late for someone in crisis. There are limited text and live chat services elsewhere but they are not staffed by autism specialists. Suggesting to an autistic person in crisis to contact a friend, when they do not have any, may actually make the person feel much worse.

Alexithymia may prevent an autistic person from identifying and explaining how they feel. Many of us have been conditioned from a young age to internalise everything. Therefore others can believe the person is fine when in fact they are far from fine. So many support services aim to help the person with their emotions and such help is very likely to be ineffective for many autistic people.

There is a complete lack of practical help and support for autistic adults. If the person is capable of feeding and clothing themselves then social services do not want to know. Yet many autistic people go through life facing numerous problems and being discriminated against for being different. Those problems can seem insurmountable without any support or understanding.

There was a post on here a while ago about a research group for a suicide prevention service, aiming to provide much needed practical advice for real life problems. https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/29529/comments-please-for-suicide-research-tools

I am so sorry for your loss. Sadly far too many autistic people have their lives prematurely cut short through no fault of their own. The life expectancy statistics for autistic people are shocking.

There is a huge gap in existing crisis services and the needs of autistic people are not being met. Mental health services do not have the training or understanding to know how to deal with us. Far too often autistic people are sectioned and detained in totally unsuitable and distressing hospital environments. Autistic people far too often become distrustful of support services, due to negative and traumatic past experiences.

Many autistic people struggle with verbal communication and telephone communication in particular. I certainly do. Yet almost all crisis services operate by telephone. The Samaritans have an email service but the turnaround time may be too late for someone in crisis. There are limited text and live chat services elsewhere but they are not staffed by autism specialists. Suggesting to an autistic person in crisis to contact a friend, when they do not have any, may actually make the person feel much worse.

Alexithymia may prevent an autistic person from identifying and explaining how they feel. Many of us have been conditioned from a young age to internalise everything. Therefore others can believe the person is fine when in fact they are far from fine. So many support services aim to help the person with their emotions and such help is very likely to be ineffective for many autistic people.

There is a complete lack of practical help and support for autistic adults. If the person is capable of feeding and clothing themselves then social services do not want to know. Yet many autistic people go through life facing numerous problems and being discriminated against for being different. Those problems can seem insurmountable without any support or understanding.

There was a post on here a while ago about a research group for a suicide prevention service, aiming to provide much needed practical advice for real life problems. https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/29529/comments-please-for-suicide-research-tools

Since my later in life diagnosis in 2021 here in the U.K. at age 52, I agree with everything you say and further, Covid has been used as another (lame) excuse - I’m still trying to find sources of post-diagnostic support while still coming to terms with my diagnosis and at my age, this is even more difficult when most of the services are geared towards children - it takes me back to when I first came out as gay in my teens in the 1980’s in Rural Ireland and it is a very similar experience - both Covid and the adult autism diagnosis combined with dealing with redundancy after 17 years, while separated from family in Ireland due to Covid lockdowns in 2020 have been far more difficult in many respects then being homeless for 6 months in 2002 when I first moved to the U.K. 

Autonomistic said:

Mental health services do not have the training or understanding to know how to deal with us.

This is my experience too. I like my community psychiatric nurse (who left her job last week) but i've felt for a while that she is out of her depth. I will meet my new CPN next week 

Autonomistic said:

Far too often autistic people are sectioned and detained in totally unsuitable and distressing hospital environments.

So so true. I was sectioned in 2017 following a mental breakdown and spent 5 years in hospital which was extremely distressing. The first year was the worst because i didn't know if i would get a long long prison sentence or a hospital order. Fortunately (although still horrible) the judge said i should remain in hospital because my mental health caused the offence. I don't agree with my paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis, i was autistic and none of my needs were being met and i couldn't cope