Adapting mental health assessment tools for autistic adults

[MHAutism]

We are looking for autistic adults aged 18 years and over, to take part in a research study.

Our research has found that there are currently no tools available to assess depression, suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviours in autistic people. This means that service providers are not able to appropriately assess depression or suicidality in autistic adults, making it difficult for autistic people with these difficulties to access treatment and support.

In partnership with autistic adults, we have adapted two widely used measures of depression, and suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviours to make the questions more clear and relevant for autistic people. We now want to ask a wider group of autistic people to feedback on these measures. We want to know how important and clear the questions are to autistic people, and any other feedback on these measures.

Taking part in the study will involve completing a private questionnaire online – you do not need to tell us your name or contact details. You will be asked to provide some information about yourself (your diagnosis/es, age, sex, employment, education and interests). Then you will be asked to fill in each question on the tool, say how important you thought the question was, and whether the question was clear or not. There will also be opportunity to provide written feedback on each question if you wish. The survey will take approximately 60 minutes to complete, and you can stop the survey at any time and come back to complete it later if you wish. Further information about the study can be found in the participant information sheet in the link below.

If you would like more information please contact the research assistant: [email protected] or the lead researcher: [email protected].

To access the survey please click on this link: https://nottinghampsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e4hJq71rBr7CEux

Thank you for considering taking part in this research project. 

[Vermilion]

Done but I found that sliding scale difficult to use because I couldn't mark the right place. I'm on my phone though.

Good luck with the research, I hope it helps to improve things.

[MHAutism]

Hi Vermillion,

Thank you very much for completing the survey. I'm sorry you found the sliders difficult to use, hopefully you were still able to enter the number you wanted.

When the study has finished I'll make sure to share the anonymised results here.

Best,
MH Autism Team

[Tucan]

I would be interested to see the results

[Lorien]

I would be interested to see the results

Ditto Tucan.

I think the biggest challenges when talking to professionals when you have autism are:

They seem to assume lack of visible emotion means you aren't feeling what you have tried to explain.

They tend to not want or allow written communication - it makes it very difficult to communicate.

Some don't understand personal space or that touch a d eye contact is very difficult.

Maybe those things are more about training and wouldn't be helpful in written form

[MHAutism]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much to all who've completed our online survey. It means a great deal that so many people have given their time and very helpful feedback.

The survey is now closed as we've had such an overwhelming response (over 500 people!  ), and we're busy going through all the responses.

the biggest challenges when talking to professionals

These are really important points, and our guide for GPs on our website created with the autistic community hopefully addresses some of these points: http://mhautism.coventry.ac.uk/guide-for-gps/

If you'd like more updates on the project, please follow @MHAutism on Twitter.

Thank you again!
MHAutism