Autistic People’s Experiences with Mental Health Services: an Umbrella Review

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. The publication reports that autistic people are authors or co-authors, without specifying their number or identifying them by name.

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Adams, D., Malone, S., Girdler, S., & Carroll, A. (2026). Autistic People’s Experiences with Mental Health Services: an Umbrella Review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-026-00591-9

Publication date: 21 Sep 2026 Added to AutiHub: 28 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
4
Autistic authors reported by the publication
Number not specified
  1. Dawn Adams
  2. Stephanie Malone
  3. Sonya Girdler
  4. Annette Carroll

Abstract

Abstract Twice as many autistic people as non-autistic people are diagnosed with mental health conditions. However, there are significantly elevated unmet mental healthcare needs and an expanding need-treatment gap. This umbrella review synthesises and appraises reviews relating to autistic people’s access to, and experience with, mental health services. Searches were undertaken in nine databases in 12/22 and 03/24 (PROSPERO CRD42023395760). Reviews were included if they reported on qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods studies of autistic people’s access to or experiences with mental health services. Two reviewers independently screened 7,622 titles/abstracts and 102 full texts. The 17 included reviews focused on four areas: barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health services (k = 10), autism training, knowledge, and experience of mental health practitioners (k = 4), autistic people’s access to, and predictors of access to, mental health services (k = 5), autistic people’s experience with technology and telehealth in mental health services (k = 4). Autistic people experience a broad range of challenges when accessing mental healthcare services. Strategies to support access are urgently required to address need-treatment gaps and improve mental health outcomes for autistic people.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
54
With a DOI
54
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
5 / 54 (9.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 54 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
54 / 54 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
280
From DOI or external metadata
280
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
117 / 280 (41.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 163 / 280 (58.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 280 (5.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 117 (12.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 242 (5.4%).
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