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Posted inNews

Vale Steve Silberman

Read about Steve Silberman's contributions to the Autistic community (This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license)
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Posted inAcademic Neurodiversity

Dr Patrick Dwyer, OTARC Research Fellow

Explore Dr Patrick Dwyer's groundbreaking work on the interplay of attention and sensory experiences in Autistic individuals, centered on the understudied monotropism theory. Learn about Patrick's commitment to advancing neurodiversity, his insights on the diversity within autism, and his personal interests in alternate histories.
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Posted inNews OTARC Seminar Series

Finding him among the living

Content warning: The following seminar contains content about suicide.

Any mother would die for their child, but how do you live for them?

Dr Jessica Revill is a psychologist and parent survivor to the loss of her Autistic son Gregory. She wrote the memoir of his death “Find him Among the Living” in 2020. In her book, her investigations into the mental health system, suicide and Autism revealed not a ‘broken system’ but an absent one. Coming from the perspective of both lived experience and research raises questions about the following:

  • Is the health care’s separation of health from mental health helping or hindering suicide prevention?
  • Doctor education and disability.
  • Public health’s approach to prevention comparing preventing road deaths versus suicide deaths.
  • A mental health curriculum in schools. What would that look like?
  • How does de-institutionalization help or hinder the mental health of people with disabilities and mental illness?
  • Non-clinical support systems.
  • The emergency room.
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Posted inEvents

Reflections on INSAR 2024 – Melbourne/Naarm

That’s a wrap on INSAR 2024!

May has been a very busy month for OTARC, welcoming the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. There were over 1,200 attendees from more than 20 countries over the four days of the meeting. Our researchers spent four days at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, colloquially known as ‘Jeff’s Shed’ by locals, to delve into autism research from around the globe.

We kicked things off with three pre-conference workshops on 15th May.