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Autistic adults have a high incidence of mental health challenges and suicidality, with a correspondingly increased mortality risk. Considering the serious risk to autistic people posed by mental health challenges, our objective was to gain a nuanced understanding of autistic adults’ experiences in seeking and receiving support for their mental health and experiences of suicidality. Acknowledging autistic people as the experts on their own lives, we applied an integrated co-design approach to our study design, involving autistic adults at every stage. Thirty-three autistic adults with a history of suicidal behavior participated in semi-structured narrative interviews, discussing their experiences seeking and receiving formal and informal support for their mental health. The data generated were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. We constructed an overarching theme that “We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know”, enclosing four central themes: (1) Communicate with Me; (2) Understand Me; (3) Help Me to Understand Myself; and (4) Support Me. Our findings demonstrate an urgent need to remove barriers to access mental healthcare services and improve effectiveness of service utilization for autistic adults. Our thematic map provides a framework to inform approach for service providers engaging with autistic adults.
Wilson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.