Autistic children facing mental health crisis during lockdown, charity warns
The mental health and emotional wellbeing of autistic children is worsening amid the current coronavirus lockdown, a survey has revealed.
Three quarters of more than 2,000 autistic children and their parents surveyed said they feel more anxious since the health crisis and think they will need ongoing mental health support.
More than half (56 per cent) said they feel stressed. A similar proportion (54 per cent) said they felt overwhelmed during the pandemic, according to the survey by the charity Ambitious about Autism.
The disruption to the routines of young autistic people's lives amid the crisis is causing stress and additional mental health issues including eating disorders, the survey found.
“Medical services have been cancelled, routines lost, there are things we can’t do and people we can’t see anymore,” said one respondent.
“For me this has caused trouble with an eating disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder- almost agoraphobia.”
Social distancing measures, especially for those who have an exemption from wearing a facemask, are also causing concern.
One autistic young...