The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Autistic Young People (M-WAY)

Sarah and Erin from the M-WAY team attended the annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). This year the conference was held in Melbourne from the 15th to 18th of May. INSAR is currently the world's largest autism research conference and attracts researchers, clinicians, and stakeholders from around the world! This was Erin’s first time attending INSAR and her first-time presenting research related to her PhD, in which she is exploring the risk and protective factors associated with self-harm in autistic young people. This was the sixth INSAR that Sarah has attended, having previously presented on her PhD research into autistic people’s parenthood experiences and her pre-doctoral research into autism and bilingualism. Attending the conference was a valuable opportunity for Sarah and Erin to hear about the latest research and catch up with colleagues.  The conference covered a broad range of topics including brain function, cognition, genetics, early de...

We're excited to announce that the M-WAY study has officially begun! Over the next three years we will be exploring autistic young people's mental health. In particular, we're interested in why many autistic young people experience anxiety and depression, and what helps them with their mental health.  We will be posting updates and any findings from our research on here in the upcoming months! Who are we? We're a neurodiverse team of researchers and clinical psychologists interested in improving autistic people's mental health (read more on our 'About the Team' page). Why are we interested in autistic young people's mental health? Autistic people often have mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, and this can have a big impact on health and wellbeing. At the moment, we don't have a good understanding of how and why these difficulties develop. This means that we don't have much information to help us develop mental health support f...