When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many doctors and other providers adapted to a telehealth model to provide care. Even as in-person treatment options are again becoming widely available, telehealth still offers unique benefits for autistic children and their families when receiving medical care and/or autism services. Those benefits include: Increased access to care (including more…
Autistic people often have complex healthcare needs that increase their risk of poorer health outcomes. For the roughly one-quarter to one-third of transition-age autistic youth who are minimally verbal and who are living in a low-income household, the transition from pediatric to adult healthcare is often tumultuous. In order to improve that transition, a one-year…
By its very nature, Halloween is scary. Everything from the decorations, AMC’s listing of the top 100 horror films, the inflated price of candy, etc. But perhaps the scariest part of Halloween is trying to understand it through the eyes of our kids with autism. So how do we make this spooky night less of…
OAR and the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P) have partnered to create a Community Grant Competition, which supports the design, packaging, and distribution of informational resources that aim to enhance the physical and mental health and quality of life of autistic individuals. This competition recognizes the expertise of community members and aims…
Most are familiar with the concept of work burnout, symptoms of which include depression, an inability to concentrate, and loss of motivation. Recent research, however, suggests that autistic people are subject to a more severe and encompassing burnout than their neurotypical counterparts. In the article “‘Having All of Your Internal Resources Exhausted Beyond Measure and…
As this issue’s Perspective notes, research has consistently shown that autistic people disproportionately experience eating disorders, with the prevalence ranging from 1.4% to 7.9% among autistic people compared to a range of 0.6% to 2.8% in the population overall. Despite this prevalence, few eating disorder recovery resources exist that specifically address the needs of autistic…
In recent years, awareness of mental health concerns has grown, coinciding with an increased understanding of the co-occurrence of autism and mental health difficulties. New research by the University of British Columbia and the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University reported that nearly 78% of autistic children have at least one mental health condition,…
An estimated one-third of autistic people are minimally verbal, yet little research examines mental health treatment for this group. In 2019, OAR awarded a $2,000 Graduate Research Grant to Ashley Muskett, a doctoral student in psychology at Virginia Tech, to investigate the feasibility of implementing an observational anxiety assessment and concurrent physiological data collection for…
Most people recall some chapter in their lives that they would look back on and identify as burnout. This term usually refers to the amount of energy someone has for their job or that they have taken on too many activities in general. In the autistic community, however, the word has taken on a different…
