In the past weeks, EXPLORA asked autistic adults about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health and daily life in an online survey. An overview of the preliminary results can be found here:
www.ugent.be/…/news-events/impactofcovidonautisticadults.htm
Results highlight the burden of the pandemic on the mental health and daily life of most autistic adults that filled out our survey. A few highlights:
– There is a need for COVID-19-related tips & tools tailored to autistic adults, and existing sources should be more widely promoted.
– Grocery shopping is most often mentioned as being anxiety-provoking. Hence, advertising specific shopping times as autism-friendly, or a buddy system pairing autistic individuals with a buddy who can shop for them, could be introduced to alleviate some of these issues.
– Further, the autistic adults indicate a need for accessible (continued) support from health services, to manage their mental health and to guide them in adjusting their routines to the rapid ongoing changes.
– Finally: we would like to encourage people to reach out to autistic individuals in their community to find out whether they are in need of support or social contact. For any questions: annabel.nijhof@ugent.be / danna.oomen@ugent.be
Links to relevant organisations / resources: click here
(Dutch version: see our Facebook page)
Annabel Nijhof 