Improving Quality of Life for Older Autistic People

Autistic people are marginalised and isolated. They have low engagement in education and employment and poor health outcomes. Many older autistic people have a lot to offer but experience barriers to contributing and achieving their full potential and are made unnecessarily dependent. The project is aimed at taking steps to change this and overcoming the barriers to an inclusive society where everyone is valued and respected, able to achieve their full potential and contribute to society.

The project starts from two scenarios involving older autistic people. One is living with their parents and forced by parental concerns to dependence they do not need or want. The parents are getting older and suggested options for the future would continue dependence. The other is frustrated by age discrimination and a dead-end job where other people take advantage of them and put them down and not being given training that leads to opportunities.

The initial proposed solution will involve an app to provide (local) information and strategies and signpost or provide confidence and assertiveness tools and mind mapping and other tools for structuring problems and prioritising actions. It will also provide links to (organisations of) autistic people to discuss problems and socialise with and local advocates for guidance and support.

In both scenarios the older autistic person could use the tools to develop confidence and assertiveness and structure thinking about the situation and possible solutions. They would have information to access groups of autistic people to discuss the problem and potential solutions with and, in the first scenario, potentially develop friendships. They could also use links to advocates. In the first scenario, advocate(s) could support them in achieving their chosen changes. In the second one advocate(s) could support them in completing applications for a new job or college/university or talking to their employer about training and a better job.

In both cases the benefits to the older autistic person are increased awareness of a range of options and ability to determine and implement changes, as well as greater assertiveness and self-confidence. The first scenario person would be able to plan for a new living situation and have increased opportunities to participate in activities and develop relationships. This would improve their health and quality of life. The second would obtain greater satisfaction and feeling of worth.

The first stage of the project is data collection from older autistic people with diverse characteristics. This will be used to ensure that the chosen scenarios and solutions are appropriate ones and decide which of the two scenarios to initially focus on. The data collection outcomes will feed into a process of co-design with autistic people to produce the app and other tools. Co-design will also involve the local small firm Passio.

Ensuring the project outcomes are made available to end-users and further developed are important parts of the project. This will involve immediate low cost commercialisation with advice from Passio and local charity Community InfoSource. A follow-up grant application will be made to support further developments to extend the solutions to other scenarios and add additional functions. Recommendations will be developed for service providers, employers and educational institutions to overcome barriers to using the solution and making services and activities fully accessible to older autistic people.

The project is intended to act as a template for achieving change for other disadvantaged groups and to be easily generalised and extended to achieve my vision of a just society in which everyone can participate and contribute and is valued.