The Autism Advocacy Group – a project utilising advice from autistic people to improve mental health services

Abstract

A project was undertaken, offering advocacy to mental health services across an NHS Trust. Despite a number of challenges, including difficulty recruiting and maintaining advocates and a number of staff changes, advocacy was provided to a range of mental health services. All six services made changes as a result of engaging with the project, expressed an increased understanding of the needs of autistic people and stated that this learning will influence their future work. Advocates fed back that being part of the project was empowering, although improvements could have been made around training and communication, as well as staff knowledge and expertise in relation to project management. Positive outcomes from the project included guidance shared across the Trust, the introduction of a Service User and Carer Advisory Group (SUCAG) and lessons generalised to other co-production projects including a sensory project.