The purpose of “We Get To Be”
To bring together lived experience, neuroscience, neurodiversity, endocrinology (hormones), stories, conversations, research, education, and observations together to help create new benchmarks, that new research can be created upon while we learn and question together.
Bringing together different ways to look at the same purpose.
(2021) A blind spot in mental healthcare? Psychotherapists lack education and expertise for the support of adults on the autism spectrum
Silke Lipinskihttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-79961, Katharina Boeglhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9042-25031, Elisabeth S Blanke1,2, Ulrike Suenkelhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5348-39963, and Isabel Dziobek1,4,5,6
ABSTRACT:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13623613211057973
Most adults on the autism spectrum have co-occurring mental health conditions, creating a high demand for mental health services – including psychotherapy – in autistic adults. However, autistic adults have difficulties accessing mental health services. The most-reported barriers to accessing treatment are therapists’ lack of knowledge and expertise surrounding autism, as well as unwillingness to treat autistic individuals. This study was conducted by a participatory autism research group and examined 498 adult-patient psychotherapists on knowledge about autism and self-perceived competency to diagnose and treat autistic patients without intellectual disability compared to patients with other diagnoses. Psychotherapists rated their education about autism in formal training, and competency in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with autism, lowest compared to patients with all other diagnoses surveyed in the study, including those with comparable prevalence rates. Many therapists had misconceptions and outdated beliefs about autism. Few had completed additional training on autism, but the majority were interested in receiving it. Greater knowledge about autism was positively linked to openness to accept autistic patients. The results point to an alarming gap in knowledge necessary for adequate mental health care for individuals with autism.
(Based on the research above, we can also see there are many bottlenecks when it comes to believed knowledge, from the people who took part in the research, it was shown that they also had a low understanding of ADHD, yet feel they had a stong understanding of ED, OCD, BPD and Depression. This in itself becomes a contradiction, Many of the parts they feel they have a strong understanding of plays a big part it what can occur in autism adults and ADHD’ers.)
The experiences of autistic doctors: a cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37533891/
Autism refers to a set of lifelong differences in how people communicate, interact, socialize, and behave (1, 2). Autistic people have individual strengths and challenges, which can include hyperfocus, differences in sensory perception, special interests, and anxiety (3). The estimated worldwide (and UK) prevalence of autism is at least 1% (1, 4, 5). More recently, one study in Northern Ireland has found a 4.7% prevalence in school aged children (6). The rate of diagnosis has increased steadily in recent years, which correlates with better awareness of autism, increased screening, and more accuracy in diagnosis (1). There is a growing understanding that there are geographic and demographic disparities in rates of diagnosis, with women, socio-economically disadvantaged populations, and those in countries with less awareness or more stigma around autism all being significantly less likely to receive a diagnosis (1, 7). In addition, we have an incomplete understanding of those who may not receive a diagnosis but who self-identify as autistic, and these individuals are unlikely to be recorded in the prevalence data. In this paper we have chosen to use identity-first language (“autistic person” rather than “person with autism”). This reflects the preferences of our autistic authors and current research on the topic, which finds that autistic people generally prefer identity-first language (8, 9). We recognize that some readers will disagree with this choice, and we wish to affirm the ways that autistic people choose to identify or refer to themselves.