Almost half of children and adolescents attending a Dublin mental health service are autistic, with those who are neurodivergent having specific challenges, the service provider has said.
The Lucena Clinic, which is part of St John of God Community Mental Health Services, has received formal accreditation as the first mental health service in Ireland to be officially declared autism-friendly.
Dr Maria Mignone, clinical director at Lucena, said the mental health clinic is not an autism service, but has noticed a “significant” proportion of their clients are neurodivergent.
A recent audit of its services found 48 per cent of patients were autistic, while at least half of its referrals are people with ADHD. Some of these patients could have a dual-diagnosis.
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“For people who are autistic, especially if you don’t know you’re autistic, school can be really stressful, especially transition to secondary school,” she said.
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“Sometimes people come to us because they think they’re depressed or anxious, and sometimes they are, but it’s linked to having these stressful things such as sensory problems, having difficulty making friends. I think especially since Covid, we found a lot of autistic teenagers found it very difficult.”
The accreditation of the centre seeks to make mental health services more inclusive for those who are neurodivergent.
Fiona O’Donnell, project co-ordinator of the neuroaffirmative project with Lucena Clinic CAMHS, said there were a number of ways in which they achieved this.
“The environment is very important. So lighting, for example – we are doing a project to move from fluorescent lighting to LED so you can turn off and on, or dim,” she said.
“But also we’ve done focus groups to get feedback from young people and what they wanted. It was as simple as having calming pictures of nature or animals on the walls, taking out the clutter of the reception areas, covering up two-way mirrors.”
The project also involved partnering with ADHD Ireland, which contributed by delivering staff training and ongoing support, as well as the National Adult Literary Agency staff training and plain English mark on service-user communications.
Adam Harris, founder and chief executive of AsIAm, said neurodivergent people “often face barriers to healthcare engagement due to communication differences, sensory aversions, and a lack of understanding and acceptance of their unique needs”.
“I very much hope the great work under way can act as a template for many other organisations in the mental health space and beyond, going forward.”
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