Reducing barriers to accessing services and improving engagement with interventions

Citation

McCarthy, J. and Chaplin, E. (2016), "Reducing barriers to accessing services and improving engagement with interventions", Advances in Autism, Vol. 2 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-11-2015-0024

Reducing barriers to accessing services and improving engagement with interventions

Article Type: Editorial From: Advances in Autism, Volume 2, Issue 1.

Welcome to the second volume of the Journal. This first issue includes papers relevant to both practitioners and researchers working across health and educational services for people with autistic spectrum conditions. The focus of this new Journal is to be inclusive in approach ensuring knowledge and good practice is shared across health, social and educational services to improve the life experiences of adults with autistic spectrum conditions.

The first paper is from colleagues in Germany, Dern and Sappok, which explores the barriers in accessing medical care for a person with an autistic spectrum condition. The study is a qualitative approach bringing together the experiences of both self-advocates and practitioners to examine a number of barriers such as communication, sensory issues and physical environments. The authors have included a list of recommendations for professionals working in health care settings when meeting a patient with an autistic spectrum condition which will have relevance to practitioners working in non-health settings such as educational colleges and social care services. In addition the authors signpost the reader to a number of booklets and internet sources to aid practitioners in making health services more accessible to people with autistic conditions.

The next paper by Carpenter et al., describes the Engagement for Learning Framework developed for children with complex learning difficulties and disabilities. Within this paper there is a description of the Framework using a case study approach within a primary school for children with autistic spectrum diagnosis. The Framework supports staff in a school environment to identify and remove barriers for learning with children who have an autism spectrum disorder. The paper describes how to monitor progress of the child and how the educator can develop an engagement profile of the child to support learning over time.

The third paper by Spain et al., is a review paper and in addition provides clinical guidelines on using psychological interventions for adults with an autistic spectrum condition. The focus of the paper is a discussion on the adaptations that are required to psychological interventions to optimise the engagement of adults with autistic spectrum conditions. The author also explores access to psychological services for adults with autistic spectrum conditions as well as the adaptations to treatment recognising the need to accommodate for the core characteristics of individuals with autistic spectrum conditions. In addition the authors discuss outcome measures that the practitioners may use in their clinical practice.

The fourth paper from Galanpoulos et al. gives a comprehensive overview of the assessment of autistic spectrum disorders and examines current diagnostic assessment in clinical practice including screening, psychiatric interview and assessment of common comorbidities associated with autism.

The final paper from Saunders and Waldie reports on a research study examining the rate of psychiatric comorbidity in autism spectrum disorder and the nature of the co-occurring symptoms. The study using computer-based tasks asks whether these additional conditions are true comorbid conditions, or can simply be accounted for through the diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder.

The papers in this edition highlight the need to take a comprehensive approach in engaging the person with an autism spectrum disorder in the assessment and treatment process. However, despite Equality legislation in such countries as England as discussed in the previous edition of this Journal (McCarthy et al., 2015) we still have a way to go from a research and practice perspective in supporting access to interventions and services for people with autistic conditions.

Jane McCarthy and Eddie Chaplin

Reference

McCarthy, J., Chaplin, E. and Underwood, L. (2015), “An English perspective on policy for adults with autism”, Advances in Autism, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 61-5