Subject: Thanks for your Youth Mental Health in the ACT report
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 08:10:29 +1000
From: Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>
To: LA Committee - EEYA <LACommitteeEEYA@parliament.act.gov.au>
CC: gentleman@act.gov.au, RATTENBURY <RATTENBURY@act.gov.au>, STEPHEN-SMITH <STEPHEN-SMITH@act.gov.au>, barr@act.gov.au
Dear Committee Members
Thank you for your report on Youth Mental Heath in the ACT. And particular thanks for the section and consequent recommendations specifically on autism (pp57-9).
It may interest you to know that federally funded mental health services like Lifeline, Headspace and Beyondblue are also unable to help many autistic callers with mental illness and suicide risk. These federally funded services refer autistic callers to a 24/7 unfunded and overstretched national hotline run by volunteers to meet the needs of autistic Australians. SOfASD feels that the ACT Government could raise this issue with relevant parts of COAG.
We are concerned that the sections of your report that focused on Behavioural Disorders and Suicide do not mention these risks for autistic youth.
We await with interest the ACT Government's response to your report.
And with an ACT election coming, we are very interested to see what response ACT political candidates have to the issues raised in your report ... and many others that affect autistic Canberrans.
Shortly after SOfASD's appearance before your Committee, ACT Police told the ABC that they intended to contact SOfASD. That has not happened.
Also, after the hearing (on 5/7/2020) SOfASD requested under the provisions of the Freedom of Information ACT (FoI) information about the training that they told you they had contracted. Their FoI response is overdue.
Bob Buckley
Chair, Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder (SOfASD)
a voice for people living with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the ACT
The original link in the email above is now broken. The webpage for this inquiry is now here. The report is now (Dec 2021) available in two formats at:
Or you can download them from the links below.
SOfASD's submission is available from out website at https://sofasd.org.au/d7/node/237 or from the Inquiry website.
The section on autism in the report says:
Autism and Disability
Autism
- are not being treated inside the health and mental health system and also not being addressed outside the health sector – autistic people just miss out everywhere on many of the services and supports they need;
- have a right to health services under Article 25 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but that goal is not being met;
- have high mortality rates including suicide; and
- have high rates of undiagnosed, untreated and/or poorly managed illness.
Routinely, autistic youth who present with anxiety, trauma or depression are denied mental health services for those conditions because of their autism. In the past, CAMHS had a strong interest in autism but now the service excludes many, possibly all known, patients known to be autistic. Many autistic youths with mental illness have nowhere else to go to get the mental health services they need. It seems this is a staff decision rather than an actual policy. [9]
Committee comment
[1] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 31.
[2] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 8.
[3] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 1. The Committee is using identity-first language, that is ‘autistic person’ rather than ‘person with autism/ASD’, on advice from SOfASD that this is the stated preference of many autistic people.
[4] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 10. There is long-standing difference between SOfASD and ACT Government officials over ASD prevalence figures for the ACT.
[5] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 11.
[6] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 12.
[7] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 14.
[8] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 15.
[9] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, pp. 15 and 21.
[10] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 15.
[11] Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Submission 16, p. 24.
[12] See QON 17: Mental health and out of home care.