Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social)

British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow interested in autism, ageing, cognition & health 🧠 SGDP Centre, King’s College London 🏫 Leaving X for BSky!

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

Anxiety is a pressing autistic community research priority. As chronic anxiety can impact health, our findings highlight the urgent need for increased, tailored support for autistic (or high autistic trait) people as they age.

https://t.co/X4lNdJeCcR

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

Our new paper is out in Nature Mental Health!

We examined different trajectories of anxiety in midlife/older age and their relationship with autistic traits.

And it was led by a wonderful former MSc and pre-doctoral fellow, Effie Eshetu.

https://t.co/X4lNdJeCcR

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

We found 3 distinct anxiety trajectories. Two were low/stable, but the third increased into clinical concern.

While middle-aged and older people w/ high autistic traits were found in all three trajectories, they were 4x more likely to be in the clinical concern trajectory.

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

Our findings add to the ongoing call for ensuring that autistic people’s mental health problems are identified and supported in a timely manner - and this may be particularly important for autistic people before/during/after the menopausal transition.

https://t.co/SKSK6xHfzd

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

Our new open access #autres paper is now out, on #menopause in #autistic populations. Info below ⬇️

With @GoldAgeLabUK , Nell Fahey, Will Mandy, and @HappeLab

https://t.co/SKSK6xHfzd

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

Using longitudinal data, we found that pre-existing poor mental health is associated with later negative menopause experiences for autistic people. This aligns with the general population menopause literature.

#autres

https://t.co/SKSK6xHfzd

[Prof Thalia Eley 💙 @thaliaeley]

Delighted to be hiring a new Clinical Psychology Lecturer in #childandadolescent #eatingdisorders to come and join our vibrant environment
@SGDPCentreKCL @KingsIoPPN @KingsCollegeLon @MaudsleyNHS Please retweet!
https://t.co/wXqdrk6gtI

[Re:Spect Lab @ReSpectLabKCL]

It's ARCH time once again! 🥳

Join us on Wednesday the 25th for a talk by Alanna Shand (@alannajshand) about the psychological strengths autistic people use to compensate for difficulties.
Tickets are available @ https://t.co/K5ZlvIsDOq🎫

We hope to see you there!

[Autism Action @_AutismAction]

Autistic people's priorities for suicide prevention - new research published today.

*Top 10 priorities*

1. Train professionals (especially in healthcare) to understand suicide, trauma, burnout and mental health issues in autistic people.

2. Autism-specific professionals, services, interventions and tools.

3. Tackle societal ignorance, prejudice and discrimination related to autism, mental health and suicide

4. Make existing services and support faster and easier to access, with better continuity of care and non-speaking ways to access help.

5. Focus on improving autism assessment and diagnosis across the lifespan.

6. Facilitate peer support (in-person/online), one-on-one mentoring or peer mental health support.

7. Focus on improving mental health with continuous, preventative support, including help with self-esteem and emotions.

8. Develop strategies for coping with suicidal thoughts and improving wellbeing.

9. Provide social support, non-judgemental and empathic.

10. Improve support/interventions in the education sector: flexible, person-centred, and strengths-based learning.

Much more detail and the full paper can be found here: https://t.co/RrjAnMqc3r

We initiated this work to guide our use of charity resources to best meet the community's needs around suicide prevention.

Directly in line with these priorities, Autism Action is already working with @PAPYRUS_Charity to deliver crisis support from staff trained to support autistic people, which will be co-created with autistic people and those who support them. We'll develop additional plans to influence Government and national services to deliver the priorities that fall under their remit, and we'll continue to plan additional projects to act on these community preferences.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped shape the surveys, analyse and write up the results, to the thousands who took part, to Dr Rachel Moseley of Bournemouth University who led the study, to the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, who had ultimate responsibility for the research, and to the wider (neurodiverse) project team.

#autismresearch #suicideprevention #autism

[Professor Cathy Fernandes @CathyFernandes1]

Interested in how mental health develops?

If your background is in psychology, biosciences, or a related field, our MSc in Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology could be your next step: https://t.co/mcGAHgBgkq

Join us in September – reach out to learn more!

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

If you need help or support, please reach out to the Samaritans: https://t.co/iUCnj2B60U

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

My former King's College London MSc DEVPP student, Sophie Roper, has published her dissertation on autism, suicidality and ageing. Supervised by me, plus
@HappeLab & @GoldAgeLabUK

The paper is open access in Molecular Autism: https://t.co/uCEveEN8am

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

There is a lot of excellent research going on related to suicidality and autism, and I am glad our ageing focused work adds to this and highlights the need for better mental health support for older autistic adults.

[Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience @KingsIoPPN]

Most #autism research focuses on young people, so we know very little about about the needs of autistic adults as they age, writes @gavrobstew in the @ConversationUK.

https://t.co/UgmXDt1kHM

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

If you want to hear more about our autism and ageing work (and maybe even take part), you can sign up to the ReSpect Lab mail list here: https://t.co/9UXvdERqi6

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

I'm very pleased that our new narrative review on autism in midlife and old age has now been published in the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology (by me and @HappeLab).

We cover a lot of topics... more below!

Open access: https://t.co/JpYcGhkrYE

[Dr Gavin R. Stewart (@gavrobstew.bsky.social) @gavrobstew]

We then round off with some considerations for the future - lots and lots of work still needs to be done, particularly translational work related to supporting autistic people as they age. And of course, autistic people should be involved in that type of work.