Autistic girl dragged from home for unknown Food Sensitivities

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

Please be mindful when talking with "health" professionals who might not have bothered to stay up on the medical science around the different biology linked with Autism.

I think a bit of common sense is needed here - those professionals often have a workload far in excess of most of us and are making life affecting decisions on an hourly basis.

To expect them to keep up to date on just one small area around a condition affecting a small minority of people (approx 2% of people are autistic and only some will have the issues here) is more than a little unreasonable.

What would be useful is if an organisation like NAS could advocate to the NHS to have neurodivergent training created for the NHS and for groups where we attend to have a minumum number of people trained on this with an annual refresher.

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

I am trying to appeal to universities and charities. We need the NHS FULLY updated on the bio-science of Autism

Could you share what hard proof the research in this area has produced please? It would be useful to see the peer-reviewed articles that will be taken seriously by the medical community. Most of what I have read so far has only resulted in indications or is not peer reviewed so I would like to update my own knowledge.

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

Please be mindful when talking with "health" professionals who might not have bothered to stay up on the medical science around the different biology linked with Autism.

I think a bit of common sense is needed here - those professionals often have a workload far in excess of most of us and are making life affecting decisions on an hourly basis.

To expect them to keep up to date on just one small area around a condition affecting a small minority of people (approx 2% of people are autistic and only some will have the issues here) is more than a little unreasonable.

What would be useful is if an organisation like NAS could advocate to the NHS to have neurodivergent training created for the NHS and for groups where we attend to have a minumum number of people trained on this with an annual refresher.

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

I am trying to appeal to universities and charities. We need the NHS FULLY updated on the bio-science of Autism

Could you share what hard proof the research in this area has produced please? It would be useful to see the peer-reviewed articles that will be taken seriously by the medical community. Most of what I have read so far has only resulted in indications or is not peer reviewed so I would like to update my own knowledge.

I'm not asking for anything unreasonable! If anything I'm putting this out there for those who don't know what to expect. 

There's a difference between demanding ethics and expecting medical professionals to use a bit of sensibility rather than presuming and actually doing harm - which there is an account of in this case. 

Fiona said:

they are looking at her behaviour through a neurotypical lens and coming up with the wrong conclusion.

So, while I can understand that there might not be an 'overt discrimination', there is also a difference between a professional who should know how to begin to ask the right questions and one who cannot see the nuances of difference, even being informed of hyper mobility, who and not only physically harms the patient but also lacks the maturity to afford dignity and act professionally. The accounts of are "carers" who lack any compassion, who abuse, disrespect and use derogatory language toward a young girl. I don't think this should be allowed in health care at any level. That can't be unreasonable to expect. 

Once we can properly assess where the lines of safety exist, then we know what to expect even if it's not ideal or the system is complicating a thing to the degree that being overworked prohibits reasonable and responsible care. I've experienced first hand the lack of basic knowledge on things - such as air pressure and blood pressure and sharp changes equating to more arrivals at A&E. I rarely encounter anyone working in medicine with the generational knowledge my grandparents or even, deep sea divers might have on the matter.  These things cannot be estranged, but they are. Caution, therefore is required. 

It's not so much that professionals " might not have bothered" , they just may not have read (or even seen) a particular piece of research out of the thousands of journal items, podcasts and papers published each day.  A busy professional may be able to get in a few hours CPD each week. If they don't ride your particular hobby horse it does not mean they can't be bothered, it may mean they have different priorities.

AMHPS, BIAs and Approved Doctors not only need to be aware of developments across a wide range of mental health disorders and conditions, they are also expected to keep up with the law. It is reasonable to expect a standard of professional competence, but the assessing professional cannot be an expert on everything. The aim of a "section" is to get the patient to a place of safety where their needs can be properly assessed and appropriately treated by experts. Yes, as in all areas of life "experts" sometimes make mistakes - medicine is not an exact science.

In ordinary life, you may miss a sale, or your cake may go flat, or you may fail to spot a minor fault ... medicine is the same. Medics can't get everything right 100% of the time, any more than car salespeople, computer technicians, or pastry cooks. It is just that their errors tend to have more significant consequences.

Pen-Pushers are the issue. And the, current, NHS is chock-full of them.

It would take a while to compile, there's a lot of medical journals. While a search for gut microbiome +Autism can turn up a good deal, I'll pull some which link to dozens more and give an idea of how to further search. One has to overlook some of the wording in these, but the research on this specific issue is key. Some claim it's emerging while others have a good amount of evidence.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225411022000281

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2022.915701/full

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41575-023-00857-1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889159118300783

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8638778/

I could keep going... they're everywhere. 

However, "Divergent Training" should come second, as there is a growing disdain to someone getting 'special treatment' for being different. 

FIRST: Knowledge of the biological potentials and research in progress: gut-health issues, allergies, inflammation, gut microbiome - all these should be step one as it changes the entire perspective and therefore, bias. It changes how autistics are treated. Had this team known that potentially there is an issue with absorbing nutrients which cannot be easily communicated and is not intuitive, they wouldn't quarantine her and treat her like a criminal who's simply protesting 'food' for a psychosomatic reason. 

Sepsis is another often overlooked. 

I only recently discovered that training is already mandated. The Health and Care Act 2022 specifically mentions autism in Section 181 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/31/section/181). I have no doubt that the inclusion of this in the Act is due in part to the work of NAS and other campaigning parties. How it's implemented is key, of course, but I believe training resources are pretty readily available.