Government pledges £4.5m to autism strategy to coincide with World Autism Awareness Day

To coincide with World Autism Awareness Day, the Government has pledged £4.5m to the new initiative Think Autism which will improve adult autism services and create community-led awareness and support programmes.

The Government has met a number of key recommendations made by Push for Action, a campaign created by the National Autistic Society to increase awareness of the extra needs adults with autism have in the community.

A report accompanying Think Autism’ includes an update on the work that has been done by the Government since the 2010 Autism Strategy was introduced. Think Autism includes future plans on how to move forward to continue to improve services.

The Think Autism initiative is formed of two aspects, an innovation fund replicating and developing new services for people with autism and an awareness programme to help communities become more autism-friendly.

Mark Lever, National Autistic Society chief executive, said: “It’s very positive that Think Autism is tackling core issues that affect the quality of the lives of adults with autism: understanding and awareness, and the development and delivery of better services.

“While welcoming the new adult autism strategy, The National Autistic Society knows that this will only make a difference to people with autism and their families if local authorities and health services establish the best possible plans for local services, and if we in the autism community and the general public help create communities where adults with autism feel understood.”

Autism is neither a learning disability nor mental health problem, but there are an estimated half a million people living with autism in the UK currently who make up one per cent of the population.

Within the Think Autism initiative there are 15 key priority challenges for action the Government hope to address. These include ensuring people with autism feel accepted members of their local community through a network of champions and third sector organisations, as well as involvement from local businesses. This can already be seen in over 250 cinemas throughout the country which hold regular screenings where changes to lighting and sound levels of films have been changed to make the experience more autism friendly.

Another priority challenge includes helping people to make friends by making peer groups and activities well publicised to people with autism, so they know specific support is there and available for them.

Mr Lever said: “I would like to thank the thousands of NAS campaigners who worked through our Push for Action campaign to make this change happen.”