Editorial

Citation

Chaplin, E. and McCarthy, J. (2018), "Editorial", Advances in Autism, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-12-2017-0025

It is our pleasure to welcome to you to the first edition of 2018. In the last edition of 2017, the readers were updated on the progress the journal had made within the academic community over the last year. With the journal now featuring in Science Open. One of the aims of the journal is to give opportunities to new writers and cover novel areas and perspectives. So we would like to encourage new and established authors to submit whether it is a scientific research paper or an area you are passionate about grounded in professional practice or personal experiences. To submit articles, go to: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aia

This edition contains papers on a variety of areas including a service evaluation across three areas of Southern England to inform future service provision, a review of parent’s perspectives on emergency visits made by youths and children, a look at evidence to see if those exposed to applied behaviour analysis (ABA) are more at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and finally looking at some of the issues of hate crime for people with autistic spectrum disorders.

The first article by Mukherjee et al. evaluates service delivery comparing services and populations in three areas of Southern England relating to autism. Over the last ten years, there has been a rise in autism awareness in the UK, which has coincided with a rise in new and varied service models. The paper aims to inform and add to the debate the next stages of service delivery and what services in the future will look like. Complexity of need in the presenting group is consistent within the different geographical areas studied. It is detail and assessment that is required to capture needs, which the study feels are greater in people with autistic spectrum disorders than first anticipated. It is these types of inquiry that is necessary and which will inform future service delivery

The second article by Lunsky et al. reviews parents’ experience of what happens to their young relatives when attending the emergency department. The paper draws on a wide range of experience to try and to understand individual encounters and experience. The paper draws on the suggestions from families. It is however the case that the approach to autistic persons needs to be individualised given the heterogeneity of those presenting in terms of age, gender, needs etc.

The third article from Kupferstein reports on a survey looking at the prevalence of symptoms of PTSD from those who had experienced ABA. Using a control group, the study reports that respondents that those who had been treated using ABA where more likely to suffer symptoms associated with PTSD and reported low levels of satisfaction with the intervention.

The final article from Chaplin and Mukhopadhyay examines the impact and some of the issues and effects of hate crime in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The paper also looks at how it affects the wider community and some of the current initiatives that are being adopted by police forces and other criminal justice agencies, who previously have been criticised for their lack of awareness and poor or non-responses to victims.

Although four diverse papers they highlight the need to be constantly raising awareness on the needs of people with ASDs not only among professionals working in the wider health system but in other public services such as the police. Even those professionals with a high level of expertise of working with people with ASDs must never underestimate the complexity nor the impact of any intervention used on a daily basis. Over the next year, we will be looking at the ways on how we can engage the readers of the journal and people with ASDs to reflect on the impact of the journal articles on their daily work and lives.

We hope you enjoy this edition and thank you for your continued support.