Examining the barriers and facilitators to mental health service provision for autistic people in Ireland: a survey of psychiatrists

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Gallagher, L., Crane, L., Dinneen, T., Ibrahim, N., Mulryan, N., Bolshakova, N., Harris, A. G., O’Rourke, L., & Pellicano, E. (2025). Examining the barriers and facilitators to mental health service provision for autistic people in Ireland: a survey of psychiatrists. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 42(3), 182-190. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2025.9

Publication date: 4 Apr 2025 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
9
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 9 (11.1%)
  1. Louise Gallagher
  2. Laura Crane
  3. Thomas Dinneen
  4. Noha Ibrahim
  5. Niamh Mulryan
  1. Nadia Bolshakova
  2. Adam G. Harris *
  3. Linda O’Rourke
  4. Elizabeth Pellicano

Abstract

Background: Autistic people have high levels of mental ill-health and an increased risk of suicide across the lifespan. Yet autistic people report difficulties communicating with healthcare professionals and accessing a range of healthcare services. At the same time, mental healthcare workers in other countries are reporting links between confidence when working with autistic patients and the degree of autism knowledge and training they can access. Methods: We sought to examine what factors helped or hindered Irish mental healthcare colleagues when working with autistic healthcare service users. An online survey using quantitative and qualitative metrics was circulated among psychiatrists who are members of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, both in training and at consultant level, from April 2021 to April 2022. Results: Knowledge of autism was high among psychiatrists (n = 140), but self-efficacy scores were variable, particularly in relation to care pathways. Self-efficacy was better among psychiatrists with caseloads of children and youth or individuals with co-occurring intellectual disabilities. Three key qualitative themes emerged relating to capacity and training of mental health professionals, ways to improve mental health services provision for autistic individuals and also the critical need for co-creation and neurodiversity affirmative care. Conclusions: The study highlighted critical systemic and professional challenges in providing mental health care to autistic people in Ireland. We provide recommendations for reducing these challenges and for enabling the development of inclusive, evidenced-based care to autistic individuals.

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 13:57.

Cited references
40
With a DOI
34
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
9 / 40 (22.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
6 / 40 (15.0%)
References with detected author names
34 / 40 (85.0%)
Without detected author names
6
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
5
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
192
From DOI or external metadata
192
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
6
87 / 192 (45.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 105 / 192 (54.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 192 (7.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 87 (16.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 10 / 168 (6.0%).
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