New best-practice guidelines for working with autistic people

The guidelines are based on the current NICE guidance and other published guidelines for autism and, due to the wide diversity in the autistic population - both how autism presents and the level of individual needs - they aim to be as broad as possible.

At their heart the guidelines emphasise a person-centred approach, with a need for autistic individuals to be directly involved in any decisions made about their assessment, care and approaches to intervention.

In the case of children, or individuals more severely affected by their autism, it is also vital that parents/careers and the whole family are consulted during the decision-making process to ensure an approach that works for all.

The guidance covers a range of key areas, including talking about autism, assessment, diagnosis and formulation, autism in children and younger people, autism in adults, employment, and autism and the criminal justice system.

It also raises areas for discussion and future research, stressing the role of psychologists, research institutions and the BPS in ensuring that the research base continues to develop to fill gaps in knowledge and that emerging evidence is incorporated into national guidelines.

Professor Patricia Howlin, chair of the working group that produced the guidance, said:

"We have made a concerted effort with these guidelines not to advocate any particular therapeutic approach, but to provide guidance and support, based on psychological principles, to psychologists working with autism.

 

Autism is a highly complex condition for which the evidence base for causation and treatment is continually developing.

The guidance is objective and grounded in evidence and we hope that it will prove invaluable to practitioner psychologists working with autistic people across many different contexts and environments."

Read the new guidelines for psychologists working with autistic people