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Programs for late diagnosed autistic adults were scarce, a Sydney panel heard
In short
Asked what existed for autistic adults diagnosed later in life, panellists at the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney described grief, isolation and a focus on children that left adults with little.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, put one question to the panel. There was plenty of talk about support and programs for autistic children, he said, but what was available for autistic people diagnosed late? One panellist began with what their own organisation offered and ended with a verdict on the field as a whole. “There’s not enough of it is the short answer though.”
The program the panellist described was for late diagnosed individuals, run online and facilitated by a counsellor. It worked through the feelings people might have after a diagnosis, and part of that, they said, was grief: “there is an element of grief of what you expected your life would be” set against what it now is. They described the process as often quite isolating, something people do not always talk about, and said that getting together with a group of people who had been on a similar path was really good.
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Sources the story draws on
- "A Group of Fellow Travellers Who Understand": Interviews With Autistic People About Post-diagnostic Peer Support in Adulthood (opens in a new tab), Frontiers in Psychology (Crompton, Hallett, McAuliffe, Stanfield and Fletcher-Watson)
- Autism in Australia, 2022 (opens in a new tab), Australian Bureau of Statistics
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