A new program aimed at preventing suicide in autistic adults was trialled to identify ways to reduce suicide and self-harm amongst autistic people, according to a study published in the Lancet’s journal eClinicalMedicina.
Autistic people are at a higher risk of self-harm and suicide compared to non-autistic people, but at the moment, there is a lack of research into how healthcare professionals can help reduce this risk.
To address this issue, a team of researchers from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology and Newcastle University tested safety plans adapted to autistic adults. Safety plans involve a personal step-by-step personal plan to help patients keep themselves safe. Typically, safety plans include reasons for living, activities that can help distract from thoughts of self-harm, as well as a list of friends, family, and professionals to contact for support during a crisis, and a plan for making the environment safe. These plans can reduce self-harm, suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviours in a range of groups, but never before in autistic people.
“We have consulted with autistic people and those who support them worldwide, to identify the most important areas of suicide prevention research to focus on and one of the top priorities was to develop new personalised suicide prevention interventions with and for autistic people. One of the suggested interventions to focus on was safety plans, as many autistic people reported using these, but recommended that adaptations were needed to make these clearer and easier to use,” said Dr Sarah Cassidy from the University of Nottingham.
In this study, the authors present a safety plan specifically designed to help autistic people. The autism-adapted safety plans (AASP) are written in a way that is more accessible for autistic people. In addition, the AASP includes extra sections to let support workers know how to communicate best and support the patients in a crisis.
The AASP was tested with autistic adults who completed it with a service provider to refine all the sections included further. Participants completed questionnaires at the start of the study and then one and six months later.
About 2/3 of the autistic adults involved in this study were satisfied with the AASP. They said their experience was positive and suggested only minor changes to some questionnaires to make them clearer. “This research builds on our work to establish a better pathway for mental health support for autistic people that is tailored to their and their family’s specific needs. Working with autistic people to trial a new adapted safety plan has allowed us to gain insight into what they need so this can now be fed into a larger trial to investigate whether AASP reduces self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and behaviors in autistic adults,” concluded Dr. Cassidy.
Rodgers J, Cassidy S, Pelton M, Goodwin J, Wagnild J, Bhattarai N, Gordon I, Wilson C, Heslop P, Ogundimu E, O’Connor RC, Ramsay SE, Townsend E, Vale L. Feasibility and acceptability of autism adapted safety plans: an external pilot randomised controlled trial. EClinicalMedicine. 2024 Jun 1;73:102662. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102662