On October 3rd, I published a post about a BBC deep dive on Autism, about how it promoted the views of one psychologist, and seemed dismissive of the information by the National Autistic Society (NAS).
Then, on October 6th, the UK Government published an update on the independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.
Then, a week later, on October 13th, I got an email from the NAS titled, “The truth about the independent review.” It started:
Last week, many headlines about the Government’s independent review of mental health, autism and ADHD focused on one thing: claims about overdiagnosis.
But that’s not what the review found. After 10 months of work, they found no evidence of widespread overdiagnosis of autism. Despite this, the media focused on misleading stories.
Autistic people are vulnerable, and the media’s bad reportage is causing more stress on people already suffering from long waiting times for diagnosis. If a person on a waiting list or refused diagnosis on financial grounds needs support, then that support should be given right then, so they do not have to wait years for a diagnosis.
