Published on 12, July, 2020
I’ve just joined and have just finished watching the 2 episodes of autistic minds which I found brilliant. I’m recommending to everyone I meet that they should watch it!
I have recently set up a charitable organisation in memory of and as a legacy for my 19th at old son who we lost in November 2021 to suicide.
He was autistic, but it was missed. This contributed to a severe mental health decline where he tried his best but I guess he felt the only answer to his pain was to end his life.
I’m not really sure how to help with this new set up, but I desperately want to try and prevent anyone else from going through what we have.
any ideas are welcome.
wishing you all the best x
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
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