What is the 1 st most important priority for our autism policy?

[IrishInManchesterUK]

I would like to see the development of Autism specialist mental health therapies for adults on the spectrum. Our neurodevelopmental and cognitive health needs need to be catered to pre and post diagnosis. It is not enough to be told our needs are too specialist for general mental health support and be left with no specialist service commissioning in our regions.

For me, I firmly believe and maintain that mental health and hidden disability needs its own separate body away from the NHS, properly funded and supported, as must also all autism charities, as a basic legal compliance issue, with far more severe legal penalties, up to and including criminal prosecutions and police involvement on those public bodies for non-compliance with the law, coupled with far greater enforcement measures to ensure that the law is being complied with, in a similar way to health and safety law or food safety law - we also need far stronger laws to ensure that the needs of autistic adults are being met, especially those of us diagnosed later in life, who need a post-diagnostic assessment, to (properly) assess both level and type of autism, any Co-occurring conditions and any appropriate post-diagnostic support going forward, as the basic legal minimum entitlement and obligation on all healthcare providers, both public and private - the current situation is totally absurd and totally unacceptable - “lack of funding” must not be allowed to be used as a legal defence/excuse for failure to comply with existing laws, a situation which already warrants immediate criminal prosecution and police/CPS involvement - we expect GP’s on the NHS to provide referrals for patients to even get private assessment and treatment, despite the fact that GP’s do not even have basic training nor experience in dealing with mental health or hidden disability issues, save those who may have come through university teaching hospitals, itself a “red flag” for corruption, while also, people diagnosed with autism later in life are expected to “muddle through” with no meaningful support after diagnosis - in 2026, we must be far more focused, far clearer and far more aggressive and argumentative in relentlessly demanding that our needs are met and become far more resolute, uncompromising, relentless in robustly challenging discrimination, corruption, hypocrisy and mismanagement wherever we encounter it, at every level and in every way

 

[IrishInManchesterUK]

Transforming the attitudes to autism in society, autism acceptance​

My vote went with aforementioned
;from better awareness 'grows' better treatment/care and stuff like that IMO

;in that to say, - autistic-led training for professionals [ any field /paygrade ]

incorporating autistic-led training/awareness within professional training-settings, and promotion, pay grade increase ..

This should be a basic legal standard, a basic legal compliance issue and requirement - in many private companies “as part of your contract” after basic induction training, regular refresher training on things like food safety, health and safety, allergy training, age-restricted sales training, etc are a basic legal requirement - there should be no difference in this area, indeed such training is of even more vital importance - it’s something that we need to start pushing for in 2026 as the current situation is totally absurd as it is unacceptable

 

[IrishInManchesterUK]

I would like to see the development of Autism specialist mental health therapies for adults on the spectrum. Our neurodevelopmental and cognitive health needs need to be catered to pre and post diagnosis. It is not enough to be told our needs are too specialist for general mental health support and be left with no specialist service commissioning in our regions.

In 2026, we need to be pushing relentlessly for changes to the law by writing to our MP’s and campaigning much more aggressively - we know that they are using “lack of funding” as a legal defence for breaking existing laws and this alone is something that should be the basis for a criminal prosecution via the CPS and police involvement - attitudes can only be changed by robust changes to the law, when it is made part of legal compliance and enforcement with severe penalties for non-compliance - all companies have strictly enforced policies on things like health and safety, food safety, allergy awareness, age-restricted sales, etc which still apply even after Brexit and these laws have strong enforcement, where “lack of funding” cannot be used as a legal defence for failure to comply with these