"He Just Wants Someone to Hear Him and Listen to Him": Barriers and Facilitators to Autistic Youth with Anxiety Receiving Quality Mental Healthcare.
Daylin Delgado, Shannon C LaPoint, Grace Lee Simmons and 6 others
PMID 39395124WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic youth and caregivers described how therapy fails when it ignores sensory needs, rigid schedules, and lack of rapport.
They valued providers who use visual aids, incorporate special interests, and allow time for trust. Telehealth helped some avoid office meltdowns but hindered connection for others.
Key findings
01Participants identified barriers including scheduling challenges, stigma, and clinical settings that do not match the natural environment where anxiety occurs or the youth's sensory preferences.
02Facilitators included using visual supports, incorporating the youth's intense interests into lessons, and allowing extra time to build trust before expecting engagement.
03Telehealth was viewed as a facilitator for avoiding office meltdowns but a barrier for rapport building for some youth who felt they could not meet the provider.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All participants lived in two Southern US states, which may not reflect barriers in other geographic or cultural contexts. The autistic youth sample was limited to those with language abilities sufficient for spoken interviews, excluding non-speaking individuals. Autism and anxiety diagnoses were caregiver-reported and not independently confirmed. All caregivers identified as mothers, and most participants were White and highly educated.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was reviewed by an Institutional Review Board, and supplementary materials are available on Open Science Framework.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these themes as evidence that specific interventions improve clinical outcomes. This study reports what participants experienced and suggested, not the efficacy of those suggestions. The findings are qualitative and based on a small, geographically limited sample, so they should inform practice discussions rather than dictate standardized protocols.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →