Dr. Barry Coughlan:

I totally agree with the Senator that much more discussion needs to happen, regardless of the level of autism, whether that is level 1 or level 3. In my briefing, I referred to the comorbidity issue. Maybe of these young people and adults are presenting with comorbid conditions such as anxiety and depression, which are essentially masked by the very presence of the autism. These are in a sense a hidden population and very often these young people and adults only come to our attention at crisis points when it is probably too late for us to intervene. I agree with the Senator that the discussion needs to widen. As the saying goes, once you have met one person with autism, you have met one person with autism. On the Senator's point about individual supports, individualisation is the key, regardless of the level of the autism. It is a complex, lifelong condition and often we do not fully understand that the rates of comorbidity are exceptionally high. In preparing this briefing, I found that all the figures from the UK show that rates of suicide in young people and adults with autism are alarmingly high but do we see that in the headlines? Unfortunately, we do not. These are the places where we get to crisis point. That discussion needs to broaden and widen and we need to develop specific bespoke services around those regardless of the level of the autism.