Two women seated at a table, each holding paint brushes, engaged in a creative painting activity
Posted inAutism and gender Health and wellbeing

Like many women, I didn’t know I was autistic until adulthood –how late diagnosis can hurt mental health and self image

For many women, an adult autism diagnosis feels like a "lightbulb moment" of self-understanding. For Dr Moseley, their own came in their late 20s, reshaping how they viewed their lifelong struggles to fit in. While autism in girls often goes unnoticed, growing awareness is helping more women to find clarity and community.
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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.
Posted inHealth and wellbeing Learning with OTARC Mental Health

Facing Stress: Coping Strategies, Resilience and Mental Health Outcomes in Autistic Adult

Coping Strategies, Resilience and Mental Health Outcomes in Autistic Adults

There is consensus surrounding the poor mental health outcomes experienced by many in the Autistic adult population. While the non-autistic literature suggests that high stress represents a key contributor to poor mental health and well-being, individual resources such as coping and resilience have the potential to mitigate the negative effects of stress, accounting for individual differences across mental health outcomes. Despite emerging research showing high stress in Autistic adults, investigations of coping and resilience in this population remain limited.