NAS covid report - Left Stranded

Publisher: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Type: 

The coronavirus outbreak has affected everyone. But it’s left many autistic people and their families completely stranded. This new report from the National Autistic Society, supported by four other leading autism organisations, highlights the often disproportionate and devastating impact the mental health, wellbeing and education prospects of hundreds of thousands of autistic people and their families.

Together with Ambitious about Autism, Autistica, Scottish Autism, and the Autism Alliance, they are calling on all governments in the UK to create an action plan to protect autistic people and their families from any future waves of the pandemic – and to address existing inequalities by investing in support and services. They are writing an open letter to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, calling on him to invest in autistic people’s futures, ahead of the Spending Review this autumn.

The report found that:

  • 9 in 10 autistic people worried about their mental health during lockdown; 85% said their anxiety levels got worse
  • Autistic people were 7 times more likely to be chronically lonely than the general population; and 6 times more likely to have low life satisfaction (comparisons using ONS data)
  • 1 in 5 family members responding to the survey had to reduce work due to caring responsibilities
  • 7 in 10 parents say their child has had difficulty understanding or completing school work and around half said their child’s academic progress was suffering.

https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/coronavirus-report