title: Staff Training in Autism: The One-Eyed Wo/Man….
abstract: Having well-trained staff is key to ensuring good quality autism services, especially since people affected with autism generally tend to have higher support needs than other populations in terms of daily living, as well as their mental and physical health. Poorly-trained staff can have detrimental effects on service provision and staff morale and can lead to staff burn-out, as well as increased service user anxiety and stress. This paper reports on a survey with health, social care, and education staff who work within the statutory autism services sector in the UK that explored their knowledge and training with regards to autism. Interview data obtained from staff and service users offer qualitative illustrations of survey findings. Overall, the findings expose an acute lack of autism-specific training that has detrimental impacts. At best, this training was based on brief and very basic awareness raising rather than on in-depth understanding of issues related to autism or skills for evidence-based practice. Service users were concerned with the effects that the lack of staff training had on the services they received. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy routes to achieving quality staff training based on international best practice. The focus is on improving the quality of life and mental health for services users and staff, as well as making potentially significant cost-savings for governments.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour Analysis, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. k.dillenburger@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Karola
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dillenburger
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour Analysis, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. l.mckerr@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lyn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McKerr
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour Analysis, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. ja.jordan@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Julie-Ann
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Ulster University at Coleraine, Londonderry BT52 1SA, UK. m.keenan@ulster.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mickey
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keenan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D004517:Education, Professional; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders; Northern Ireland; United Kingdom; adults with autism; mental health; services; staff training