Autism and Co-Morbid Mental Health: Proposed Pilot Study of a Positive Psychology Intervention

There is acceptance that autistic people are at risk from co-morbid mental health conditions. Of these, the most commonly occurring are depression and anxiety disorders. There is also awareness that life skills are usually... [ view full abstract ]

There is acceptance that autistic people are at risk from co-morbid mental health conditions. Of these, the most commonly occurring are depression and anxiety disorders. There is also awareness that life skills are usually delayed and many young people are not motivated to develop these skills. There are few intervention programmes to support people, and availability is scarce. Positive Psychology focuses upon the elements required to lead a fulfilled life. Research has shown that positive emotions build personal resources and lead to increased positive emotions which spiral towards wellbeing (Fredrickson 2013). ‘Positive Psychotherapy’(PPT) adapts positive psychological interventions to develop programmes for clinical populations, such as depression (Seligman et al. 2006) and schizophrenia (Riches et al. 2015). We intend to adapt PPT and will offer an example in this presentation to use with parents and train them to use this with their autistic child, as an accessible and cost effective model. This pilot study will recruit two intervention groups and a waiting list control. Group 1 will use the adapted intervention, Group 2 the adapted intervention with the inclusion of goal setting, enhancing motivation and developing life skills. Outcomes will be evaluated by using various measures of well-being and life skills. Differences between the experimental groups will inform of the value of including the additional elements in further studies. Outcomes will be assessed against those of the control group. We welcome comments from the community to help guide our next steps and inform our practice.