Autism & Mental Health Services Project
Autism-specific training for mainstream mental health professionals, mental health organisations, and general practitioners.
These interactive sessions aim to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to deliver support to autistic adolescent and adult clients who have co-occurring mental health conditions.
Training will incorporate the nature of co-occurring mental health conditions of autistic people, differential diagnosis of autism and mental health conditions, and adaptations to therapeutic strategies to support their specific needs.
Sessions are developed in collaboration with autistic people, including a consultant with lived experience of autism and mental health conditions, family members and carers, mental health practitioners and general practitioners.
This includes surveying (please see Survey Links further down this page):
- Autistic people (and their families and carers) to learn about their experiences of mental health services; and
- GPs, mental health practitioners and psychiatrists to identify gaps in practitioner knowledge of autism, to learn about practitioner confidence in delivering services to autistic people, and to meet the diverse discipline-specific needs of practitioners.
Sessions for Mental Health Practitioners
These interactive workshops aim to provide mental health practitioners across Queensland with the knowledge and skills to better understand the autistic experience and deliver appropriate, meaningful and neurodiversity-affirming supports to adolescent and adult autistic clients who have co-occurring mental health conditions.
Topics include:
- An extension of knowledge of autism and its functional impacts
- Strategies to accommodate individual differences and improve outcomes
- Key considerations for assessment and management of mental health for autistic people
- Mental health treatment modifications for autistic people
- Case studies to apply knowledge and strategies.
Dates don’t suit or sessions are full? Register for session updates here.
Sessions for Mental Health Organisations
These interactive workshops aim to provide mental health organisations in Queensland with the knowledge and skills to better understand the autistic experience and deliver appropriate, meaningful and neurodiversity-affirming supports to adolescent and adult autistic clients who have co-occurring mental health conditions.
Topics include:
- An extension of knowledge of autism and its functional impacts
- Strategies to accommodate individual differences and improve outcomes
- Key considerations for assessment and management of mental health for autistic people
- Mental health treatment modifications for autistic people
- Case studies to apply knowledge and strategies.
Sessions available upon request. Please follow the link below for more information.
Sessions for General Practitioners
These interactive workshops aim to provide general practitioners across Queensland with the knowledge and skills to better understand the autistic experience and deliver appropriate, meaningful and neurodiversity-affirming supports to adolescent and adult autistic clients who have co-occurring mental health conditions
Topics include:
- An extension of knowledge of autism and its functional impacts
- Strategies to accommodate individual differences and improve outcomes
- Key considerations for assessment and management of mental health for people on the spectrum
- Case studies to apply knowledge and strategies.
Register for session updates here.
Survey Links
Individuals and Family Members
We’d like to hear from autistic Queensland adolescents (from 12 years) and adults, and who also have a mental health condition; as well as from family members or carers. You can do this by following the links below and completing the survey that applies to you.
- To access the survey for autistic people aged 12 years and over, click here.
- To access the survey for family members/carers of an autistic person, click here.
Professionals
We’re also seeking feedback from general practitioners, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners about their confidence and experience in supporting autistic people who may have co-occurring mental health conditions.
- To access the survey for GPs, click here.
- To access the survey for mental health practitioners, click here.
- To access the survey for psychiatrists, click here.
Through this project, autistic adolescents and adults will benefit from improved access to high-quality mental health services that meet their unique needs, as well as improved integration of mainstream mental health and autism-specific services.
Funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Go to www.dss.gov.au for more information.
