Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

Rachel Pupazzoni

A Perth mother says she has been pushed to the edge of despair after being told she will have to wait at least two years to get an autism assessment for her 10-year-old son.

"When I got the letter telling me about the wait time I just burst into tears," Tanya Wheat said.

"It is absolutely disgraceful, we can't wait two years, my son needs support now."

Brady Huggett

In April of 2021, Emilie Wigdor finished up a paper titled “The female protective effect against autism spectrum disorder” and put it on the pre-print server medRxiv. Wigdor is a Ph.D. student in human genetics at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, and the paper had taken three years to complete. It was also the first paper on which she was first author. She was proud of that, and she took to Twitter to promote the work in an 11-part thread.

Jessica Horner

Rebecca Trigger

A girl with severe autism was locked in solitary confinement at a West Australian juvenile detention centre for more than seven months, documents filed in the Australian Federal Court claim.

La Trobe University autism researcher, Professor Cheryl Dissanayake AM has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).

The Lim family is facing a struggle to stay in Australia after the residency application for their son was rejected on medical grounds. They are now seeking intervention from Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil to be allowed to stay permanently.

Hyunsin Lim and his wife Yoojin Yang hoped to provide a ‘safe and fulfilling' life for their two children in regional Australia.

This article by Professor Andrew Whitehouse, Bennet Chair of Autism at Telethon Kids Institute and from The University of Western Australia originally appeared in The Conversation on November 9, 2022.

A heated debate about autism was reignited after the recent publication of an article advocating for use of the term “profound autism”.

“How is he?” my mother in law asked worriedly as she hugged me tight.

“Not good, I don’t know how to reach him, he is here, but so far away”, I explained through the tears running down my face.

My precious son had been struggling for weeks emotionally and physically. From my own personal experience with depression and suicidal thoughts, I knew the depths he was in, while fighting to keep his head above water.

On the spectrum himself, my little boy’s struggle was not uncommon. Autism and suicide, unfortunately, can go together often. My concern for him was great.

Steven Morris

Mandatory programme named after Oliver McGowan, whose mother led a campaign after his death in 2016

Mandatory training for health and care staff in England to support people with a learning disability and autistic people has been launched following a grieving mother’s four-year campaign.