ASD and Suicide Risk

I did my community health project on suicide prevention and found that people with Autism actually have an elevated risk, which makes sense once you understand the stress diathesis model.

• The stress diathesis model is that psychological crisis occurs when stress exceeds coping, which is why patterns of dysfunction are highly individual.
• People with high functioning autism have a shorter life expectancy than people with severe autism, with suicide making up that difference. (40 years vs. 52).
• An acceptance model has been shown to improve outcomes in other suicide-prone populations.  This involves appreciating children for who they are rather than focusing on deficits.

I’ll probably come back and add more, but it took a lot of work to get this paper as readable as it presently is (from the original nursing school rubric).

ASD and Suicide risk