National Autism Project – “The Future I’d like to see”

In our report The Autism Dividend – Reaping the Rewards of Better Investment we not only set out our recommendations for improving the lives of autistic people through investing in evidence-based practice and high-quality research, we also commit to inviting a range of authors to tell us about the future they would like to see, setting out a vision of what could be achieved if our recommendations are indeed taken up. Our aim is to publish a series of essays throughout 2017 and by the end of the year to have addressed all the recommendations in the report so that a strong picture emerges of what The Autism Dividend really looks like.

Our first contributor is Dame Stephanie Shirley explaining why her foundation set up the National Autism Project and what she personally hopes it will achieve.

“The Future I’d like to see” – Dame Stephanie Shirley

Since 2007 we have had the National Audit Office’s report, the Autism Acts in England and Northern Ireland, the Scottish Strategy for Autism and the Welsh Autism Strategic Action Plan. Why should the Shirley Foundation invest over £½m in the ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Jude Ragan

The NAP report gives us the current evidence base for what works for autistic people, what can help them to manage and improve their lives as well as making economic sense. The future that I think we need to see ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Damian E M Milton

I originally became involved in the National Autism Project as support for Dr. Dinah Murray’s involvement in the project strategy board and then as a member of the Project’s autistic advisory panel. As an autistic academic and father to an ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Dinah Murray

Liberating Potential This is the fourth of the NAP think pieces about the future we’d like to see in relation to autism; I salute its predecessors and hope to live up to them as I apply The Autism Dividend’s principles ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Michael Fitzpatrick

Reflections on The Autism Dividend: Reaping the Rewards of Better Investment National Autism Project, January 2017 ‘Many autistic people experience poor health and poor healthcare, causing pain, distress, premature mortality and above average suicide risk.’National Autism Project (2017) The Autism ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Wenn B Lawson

A Response to two of the noted needs, highlighted by the National Autism Project (NAP) Report When I think of ‘the future’ I find it difficult not to drift off into science fiction movies where mutants are the ones who ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Ian Ragan

The future I’d like to see is one where there is mutual understanding and reconciliation of opposing points of view on research that is aimed at treating the core features of autism. One of the conclusions of the National Autism ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Catriona Stewart

When I was studying for my PhD – between 2006 and 2010 – the ratio of male to female in autism was believed to be around 3 or 4:1. For Asperger syndrome (AS), the ratio increased to around 9:1. AS ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Larry Arnold

The first recommendation of the National Autism Project’s Autism Dividend report mentions timely identification and diagnosis, but what does this mean and how can it be achieved? I think one of the benefits of my autism, has been the ability ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Hilary Gilfoy

The future I’d like to see is one in which information about autism and about autistic people is consistent, based on agreed definitions and shared across services and sectors. This is of course an enormous challenge but the benefits for ...

“The Future I’d like to see” – Elizabeth Vallance

Dr Elizabeth Vallance I am very proud of our report The Autism Dividend: Reaping the Rewards of Better Investment, not only because it is probably the most comprehensive and evidence-based piece of work ever carried out in the field of ...