Dr. Barry Coughlan:

I thank the Senator for his question on the mental health needs of this population. Suicidality is of concern. A number of years ago, I was involved in the complex needs project in the UK. One of the key themes that came out of that were the mental health needs of young people with an intellectual disability. As a subpopulation of that, those with autism or autism spectrum disorder were deemed at increasingly high risk, given the very nature of autism. While the figure was approximated at 40% of young people with an intellectual disability presenting with a mental health difficulty, if autism was present, that figure increased to more than 60% to 70%. We are talking about a very high-risk population.

Interestingly, the National Autistic Society in conjunction with YoungMinds, published a report last year. That report referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, guidelines, and particularly pointed out that this was a population they were extremely concerned about as regards risk and suicidality. Unfortunately, as the Senator alluded to, there are no figures for Ireland but if we embed that in the context of the Covid pandemic, which we have all been through, and understand the very nature of autism, which includes loneliness, isolation, etc., we are extremely concerned as healthcare professionals. Again, the discussion needs to widen not just in respect of autism diagnosis but that of the comorbidity piece. The language we use is "diagnostic overshadowing". These young people are often overshadowed and we do not pick up on them soon enough. It is very important.