FEATURE Make a Switch
Neurodiverse individuals are routinely discriminated against and suffer cruelty within the healthcare system. Charlotte Valeur, Chair and Co-founder of the ION, calls for a paradigm shiſt in the way that people with autism and learning difficulties are considered.
Around 15% - 20% of the world’s population is estimated to be neurodiverse yet faces widespread discrimination. An individual with autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD has to ‘unlearn’ their natural instructs to integrate into a ‘neurotypical’ society. This results in them being forced to go through misguided and cruel conversion therapies, repeatedly failed by the education and healthcare systems, and face being locked up in health facilities around the country – sometimes indefinitely.
According to a report by NHS England, neurodiverse groups are significantly more likely to experience health inequalities, including certain physical and mental health conditions, and are less likely and less able to access healthcare services. Autistic people are also more likely to experience certain physical health problems, difficulties accessing healthcare, and certain mental health conditions.
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/learning-disability-services-statistics/learning-disability-services-monthly-statistics-at-april-2021-mhsds-february-2021-final/summary-report---at
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/B0707-meeting-the-healthcare-needs-of-adults-with-a-learning-disability-and-autistic-adults-in-prison.pdf
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated the health inequalities experienced by neurodiverse groups. There has been a higher rate of death from Covid-19 for neurodiverse people and at a younger age than the general population. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing, particularly for autistic young people, as the restrictions put in place changed their routines and changed or limited the care and support they receive.
“As of February 2021, well over half of the inpatients classified as autistic or possessing a learning disability have been
legally locked up in hospital for more than one year.”
Neurodiverse individuals disproportionately suffer from misguided behavioural (and punitive) interventions across the whole of health and social care. This is not only discriminatory; in far too many cases it is abject cruelty.
For example, there are more than 2,000 neurodiverse people, including those with learning disabilities or autism, classed as inpatients by the NHS, but many of whom are trapped in long- stay hospitals with no or little prospect of ever getting out again. According to the NHS’ data, as of February 2021, well over half of the inpatients classified as autistic or possessing a learning disability have been legally locked up in hospital for more than one year, with 35% locked up for over five years and a shocking 17% locked up for ten years or more.
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This alone is unacceptable, but it gets worse: not all of these individuals require this level of intervention, but they are oſten (incorrectly) sectioned, unable to leave. One survivor of such a setting, an autistic woman called Alexis Quinn, went on to write her memoirs about being in such a situation in a British mental hospital. She voluntarily sought help for the sake of her mental health, having been diagnosed as autistic and finding it difficult to simultaneously cope with the birth of her child and the death of her brother whilst living abroad. At the hospital, she was sectioned, unable to leave, and routinely received treatment that did not reflect her needs because her autism was not understood and because the environment in which she found herself was inappropriate. Having escaped the mental institution, she fled the UK and within six weeks of building an environment she could thrive in, she had secured full-time work and her life.
The UK Government website currently states that it plans, starting this year, in 2022, “to improve how people with a learning disability and autistic people are treated in law and reduce the reliance on specialist inpatient services for these groups. We want everyone to have the opportunity to live a full and rewarding life in their communities and an end to perpetuated detentions without appropriate therapeutic inputs.”
The life cost of the neurodiverse is too high. Instead of society asking, "how can we make neurodiverse people neurotypical," the Institute of Neurodiversity believes that the question needs to become, how can everyone else become more accepting of who we already are.
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/learning-disability-services-statistics/learning-disability-services- monthly-statistics-at-april-2021-mhsds-february-2021-final/summary-report---at
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/young-autistic-man-confined-in-hospitals-former-storage-room-for-four- years-lcp8pn26p
Never before has there been a single, umbrella organisation that protects the rights and encourages the wellbeing of neurodiverse groups around the world. We believe that this is one of the ION’s greatest strengths, and will be key in the fight against the institutional discrimination the neurodiverse community faces throughout our lives.
https://ioni24.wildapricot.org www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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