Access to services for autistic people across Europe

Ikhsan, S. N. B. M., Holt, R., Man, J., Parsons, T., Schalbroeck, R., Ruigrok, A., Baranger, A., Allison, C., Doherty, M., Bosch, K. V. d., Terčon, J., Violland, P., Ghosh, A., Cusack, J., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2025). Access to services for autistic people across Europe. Molecular Autism, 16(1), 35-35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00664-2

Publication date: 14 Jun 2025 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
15
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 15 (13.3%)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autistic communities in Europe continue to face difficulties accessing services despite increasing rates of autism diagnosis in recent years. METHODS: To investigate autistic people's access to services in Europe and reasons for unsuccessful access, we conducted the ACCESS-EU survey comprising of 2322 formally diagnosed autistic people and family carers living within the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK). The survey also examined age group (adult vs. child) and gender (male vs. female) differences in results. RESULTS: Overall, autistic people reported access to therapy (33.38%), mental health (29.89%), educational (27.05%), medical (34.28%), financial (26.66%), needs assessment (14.90%), information/referral (14.73%), social care (14.43%), employment (7.54%), housing (6.80%), legal (3.96%), helpline (3.40%) and other services (0.26%), and most (≥ 57.61%) had waited up to 6 months from referral to access most services. Several respondents were also unable to access therapeutic (13.53%), mental health (11.90%), autism diagnostic (5.92%), needs assessment (8.32%), financial (9.62%), educational (8.10%), social care (7.39%), information/referral (6.14%), medical (7.28%), housing (5.92%), employment (5.43%), legal (3.42%), and helpline services (2.34%). Reasons cited by respondents for their unsuccessful service access included service unavailability (23.08%), service unsuitability or participant ineligibility (20.04%), long waitlists (17.42%), service unaffordability (11.80%), and rejection from service due to autism diagnosis (9.87%), along with other reasons not listed in the survey (18.42%). Significant age group and gender differences were observed for successful access to services, waiting time, unsuccessful access and reasons for unsuccessful access. Among the five most represented countries in the survey-the UK (33.33%), Spain (14.04%), Poland (13.87%), France (11.07%) and Germany (6.03%)-overall service access was most inconsistent in Poland and the UK, highest in Germany and Spain but poorest in France. LIMITATIONS: Issues related to survey presentation such as the languages in which the survey was conducted and the phrasing of some questions should be considered, as well as issues regarding subjectivity and ambiguity of data analysis such as translation of non-English responses into English. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that service access among autistic people in Europe is inconsistent. Significant improvement to current policies is required to enhance access to services across Europe.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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

Bibliography inclusion overview

These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
54
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
4 / 54 (7.4%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
9 / 336 (2.7%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 9 / 103 (8.7%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 7 / 274 (2.6%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
103 / 336 (30.7%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 87 / 274 (31.8%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
94 / 103 (91.3%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 94 / 336 (28.0%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 80 / 87 (92.0%).
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