Service evaluation project: Evaluating and addressing staff training needs in relation to autism in an older adult mental health service

Abstract

Autistic adults are at higher risk of experiencing mental health problems and commonly describe poor service experiences relating to a lack of understanding of autism by clinicians. Therefore, there is an increasing impetus in the National Health Service (NHS) for staff to receive autism training. However, there is a lack of understanding around training needs for older adult mental health teams. This service evaluation project used audit and survey methodologies to explore the autism training needs of an older adult mental health team. Whilst the audit identified that the team did see patients suspected to be on the autism spectrum, most patients did not have an official diagnosis. Most clinicians reported never having received any training in autism, and highlighted autism in older adults, and autism and mental health, as specific training priorities. A training programme based on these responses was developed, implemented, and evaluated using surveys. The training was rated as useful by attendees and resulted in non-statistically significant increases in self-rated knowledge. The findings of this study suggest that clinicians working in older adult mental health may particularly benefit from training specialised to their older adult context. Further research is required to better understand the area of older adulthood and autism, and to evaluate how to effectively enhance the capability of staff working in this area.