NICE proposes two new quality standards for autism
5 September 2011
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has proposed not one, but two quality standards for autism - one for adults and one for children.
We believe that the inclusion of these quality standards will be a major step forward for improving child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) for children with autism, as service providers will have to specifically take into account their needs when designing services. As part of the You Need to Know campaign, 1,250 of our supporters emailed the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, to ask for a quality standard on Autism.
Quality standards act as markers of high-quality, efficient patient care. In the future, as part of the Government's reform, these standards will be used to judge the performance of patient care at both a local and national level for the whole health service. This means that greater account will be taken of the needs of people with autism in commissioning services. We hope that this will lead to more co-operation between providers, and better support for people with autism who have mental health problems.
The proposed list of quality standards is online at: www.nice.org.uk/media/CCD/A8/NQBQSProposedLibraryTopics.pdf If you have any comments please email: policy@nas.org.uk 
Download presentations from our Autism and Mental Health Conference
7 July 2011
Our recent conference, 'Autism and Mental Health: Supporting Children and Adolescents', gave attendees the chance to hear about the latest research and best practice in diagnosis and interventions for CAMHS professionals.
There was some great discussion around the topic and attendees gained insights into how to adapt their assessments to meet the needs of young people with autism and learned practical tools to help communicate with them more effectively.
Presentations from the conference can now be downloaded at www.autism.org.uk/conferences/CAMHS2011, including Dr Paramala J. Santosh's presentation on medication, which we weren't able to include in delegate packs. 
New guide for CAMHS professionals launched at
NAS conference
29 June 2011
Last week we launched a fantastic new guide for CAMHS professionals, which offers tips and good practice examples for working with children with autism and mental health problems.
The guide was launched at our Autism and Mental Health Conference in Birmingham, which was attended by 135 CAMHS professionals keen to learn how to support children with autism to have good mental health.
The conference featured keynote speeches from professors Ann Le Couteur and Emily Simonoff. Contributions also came from NAS young campaigners Hayley and Jacob, who ran a workshop on involving young people, and from Helene Deness, who gave the parents' perspective.
To order your copy of Mental health and autism: A guide for child and adolescent mental health practitioners, please visit our online shop.
New guide for local councillors about mental health services
5 May 2011
A new guide, called Difference in mind, sets out what local councillors need to know about mental health services for children with autism in their area.
As part of our You Need To Know campaign, The National Autistic Society (NAS) has been working with the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) to produce the guide. You can download a copy from the CfPS website.
Each local council in England will have at least one overview and scrutiny committee, who can make recommendations about particular services in their area. We hope that as many scrutiny committees as possible will use the guide to help them find out how CAMHS are working, and what, if anything, would improve support for children with autism and mental health problems.
You can help us to do this by writing to the Chair of your local committee. Ask them to use the guide to look at how well-equipped CAMHS is to support children with autism locally.
Professional guidance to help improve CAMHS
4 May 2011
The last two months have seen the publication of two important documents that will help improve CAMHS professionals' understanding of autism and mental health. The first is from the National Mental Health Development Unit and is called Planning mental health services for young adults - improving transition. It aims to assist current and future commissioners of health and social care services.
The second has been produced by the Quality Network for Community CAMHS. In April this year they published the third edition of their service standards. These standards define what a good-quality CAMHS service looks like. Thanks to the You Need To Know campaign, both of these important documents include references to autism and both will help make sure that in the future, CAMHS services for people with autism improve.
You Need To Know launches in Coventry
29 March 2011
The latest of the local launches of our campaign for improved mental health services for children with autism has taken place in Coventry. NAS members and campaigners joined with child mental health professionals to attend the launch and to find out more about theYou Need To Know campaign and how they can get involved. As well as hearing from the NAS, the audience also heard from a Rohesia Cole, a mental health professional, about how her service works with children and young people with autism. Young Campaigner Ben Kenyon and his mum, Becky, introduced the 'Open your mind' film and spoke about their experiences. You can see more from them, and Rohesia, in some great coverage of the launch by ITV news here.
Campaign report for Northern Ireland coming soon
1 March 2011
You Need To Know will be launching in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, 9 March. This follows research involving more than a hundred parents in Northern Ireland, who told us there was a clear need to improve support for those children with autism who also have a mental health problem.
You Need To Know is launching across England
23 February 2011
The You Need To Know campaign has been running since June 2010, trying to change the mental health system for children with autism. We're now launching the campaign regionally at local events across England.
These events will give you the opportunity to learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved locally. You'll also get the chance to see the fantastic new film and mental health charter by our Young Campaigners' Group, who will be attending some of the events and talking about how they think the charter will help improve mental health services for children with autism.
We'll also be inviting local commissioners and professionals to the events, so they can learn more about working with people with autism who also have a mental health problem.
Here are the dates for the launches:
- 8 March – Derby
- 9 March – Tytherington, Cheshire
- 10 March – London
- 16 March – Newton Aycliffe, County Durham
- 28 March – Coventry
If you'd like to attend any of these events, please RSVP by emailing campaign@nas.org.uk, telling us which event you're interested in. We anticipate that these events will be very popular and cannot guarantee that everyone that replies will be allocated a place.
Another victory for You Need To Know
14 January 2011
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently announced that it will be releasing guidelines on managing autism in children and adolescents. This is a great step forward for the You Need To Know campaign as it gives us an opportunity to make sure there is national direction on how to support children with autism who also have mental health problems. It was one of our original recommendations in the You Need To Know report and we have been pushing for it since launching the campaign.
NICE publishes guidelines on the care of people by health professionals (eg mental health professionals) and also develops standards to assess the services that health professionals are providing. It can also help to train health professionals, which is particularly important for children with autism and mental health problems, many of whom do not feel that professionals recognise their needs properly.
This now means that NICE will establish a group of professionals who will create draft guidelines. In total, the process takes between two and three years, so we hope these guidelines will be released in 2013/14. Although this is some way ahead in the future, we hope that the guidelines will improve the mental health services of thousands of children with autism in the years to come.
YoungMinds releases new report on children's mental health
5 January 2011
YoungMinds, a charity that campaigns for young people's mental wellbeing, released the findings of a new survey at the end of last year. The survey, 'See Beyond Our Labels', aims to tackle some of the issues that stigmatise mental ill-health in young people.
The research found that over half (52%) of the young people surveyed had heard friends and classmates call people who were going through tough times names. 45% said that they had been called names themselves when they had been having problems.
As part of You Need To Know, our Young Campaigners' Group have been talking about their experiences, as young people with autism, of having mental health problems. Several of them have spoken about being bullied or called names at school and how this has made them feel. It is clear from what the Young Campaigners have told us and the new report from YoungMinds that stigma around mental health problems can have serious effects on young people.
The survey calls for, among other things, greater knowledge and understanding among mental health professionals and staff at schools. This is also one of the key parts of You Need To Know.
If you would like to read YoungMinds' survey, you can view it online here.
Transition victory for the You Need To Know campaign
21 December 2010
When we researched this campaign, one of the big issues that young people and families told us about was the transition from CAMHS to adult services. Our campaign called for action from Government to make it easier for young people approaching adulthood to access support when they became too old for CAMHS.
Through new guidance, published as a result of the Autism Act, NHS bodies now have a legal duty to "ensure that protocols are in place in every local area for the transition of clinical mental health care for children with autism in receipt of CAMHS". This means that wherever you live, the NHS must now make plans to improve transition planning for young people with autism accessing CAMHS. This breakthrough is directly thanks to your campaigning, so thank you to everyone who took part.
Now we need councils to act. We've launched an email action to make it easy for you to contact your council and ask them what they are doing to implement this new guidance. Contact your council now.
Watch a sneak-peak of the new Young Campaigners film
2 December 2010
The Young Campaigners Group have released a preview of their new film, 'Open your mind'. The video is about the group's experiences of writing a new charter to tell decision makers what they think needs to change to make mental health services for children and young people with autism better. The full film will be released in early 2011. Watch the film here.
Families share their views of local mental health services
5 November 2010
Thanks to everyone in the NAS Isle of Wight and Stratford-upon-Avon branches who have shared, and encouraged others to share, their experiences of local CAMHS in our online survey. NAS Surrey Branch has also now joined the survey.
We're asking parents of children with autism who have accessed, or tried to access, mental health services for their children in these three areas to share their experiences by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/s/youneedtoknowlocalsurvey
If you're part of another NAS branch or local group in England and would like people in your area to get involved, please contact the NAS campaigns team at campaign@nas.org.uk or on 020 7923 5799 to find out how.
No decision about us without us, Young Campaigners tell national conference
29 October 2010
This week we met with CAMHS commissioners and professionals at a national conference to talk about You Need To Know. Two of our Young Campaigners Group, Henry and Hollie, shared their experiences of CAMHS and talked about why they got involved in the campaign.
"In the bad times, people with autism, as well as those who look after them, need to be able to turn to experts at their local hospital," Henry told those attending the workshop.
"CAMHS has the power to change our lives", said Hollie, "and by working with young people and focusing on what works, we can improve this system for young people with autism and make a real difference to their lives."
The commissioners and professionals we met were struck by the sheer determination of Henry and Hollie to make sure other young people with autism and mental health problems don't experience the same lack of support that they have. Delegates were keen to hear more about the Young Campaigners' Charter for CAMHS and how they could involve young people with autism who they support.
Find out more about the Young Campaigners Group.
Tell the Government how to improve the NHS
13 October 2010
A shake-up of the National Health Service (NHS) is being planned by the Government. They want to know what you think of the reforms.
You've told us what you think needs to change about mental health services for children with autism. Now is your chance to influence the reforms and help make things better. Send a message to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley telling him what you think needs to change and why.
We have prepared a simple form to fill out that will provide you with a suggested message, which you can change and personalise too.
The Government says that this is one of the most important reforms to the NHS since its creation, which means that this is our chance to make it better for thousands of children with autism.
You can find out more information about the proposed reforms on our website by reading the NAS response to the Government's proposals.
NAS branches ask parents for views on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
15 September 2010
We know that CAMHS services for children with autism vary across the country, and that’s why two NAS branches are building on the national research that we carried out as part of the You Need To Know campaign by running their own local survey.
The NAS Isle of Wight Branch and the NAS Stratford upon Avon District Branch are asking parents of children with autism in their area who have accessed, or tried to access, mental health support for their child to tell them about their experiences by completing a short online survey.
They will use the findings to tell local decision-makers about what needs to happen to make mental health services work better for children with autism.
If you have been affected by the issues raised in the You Need To Know campaign and live either on the Isle of Wight or in Warwickshire, please help us to make a difference where you live by filling in a survey at:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/youneedtoknowlocalsurvey
If you are an NAS branch or local group in another part of England and you're interested in running your own local survey about mental health services for children with autism, please contact the NAS campaigns team at campaign@nas.org.uk or on 020 7923 5799.
You Need To Know will be at this year's party conferences
13 September 2010
Over the next few weeks, we'll be meeting with ministers, MPs and government advisers to tell them what they can do to make things better for children with autism and mental health problems. Representatives of the NAS will be visiting the party conferences of the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives, as well as conferences in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our Young Campaigners Group will also be participating in these events, sharing their experiences of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the UK and how these services can and must be improved. Find out more about the Young Campaigners Group.
NAS meets with Minister for Care Services
9 September 2010
Last month, Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the NAS, met with Paul Burstow MP, Minister for Care Services. It was because of the overwhelming response to You Need To Know from the NAS' campaigners that we were able to secure this meeting with an influential member of the Government.
During the meeting, we presented the campaign to the minister. It is important to get the Government behind the campaign, so that we can really improve the lives of thousands of children with autism and mental health problems. We are gaining support from MPs across Parliament, which will help us make our case to the Government.
The response from our campaigners has been amazing, but we need you to tell your friends about You Need To Know. Get them to visit www.autism.org.uk/youneedtoknow and email their MP, put up posters and nominate their Happiness Heroes. The more people that hear about You Need To Know, the stronger our campaign becomes and the more chance we have to improve the lives of thousands of children with autism.
Young Campaigners Group works hard over summer
27 August 2010
Since the launch of You Need To Know, the Young Campaigners Group have been working on their charter for better mental health services for children with autism. The aim of the charter is to tell the Government, mental health professionals and commissioners how mental health services can be improved. We will be releasing the charter, along with a film by the group, in the new year. The group have also been busy speaking at events, including political party conferences. Keep an eye on the website, because we'll have lots more from the group soon. Read their blogs and watch their vlogs here.
Contacting local mental health professionals and commissioners
3 August 2010
We've launched two new guides on how to talk to mental health professionals and commissioners about the You Need To Know campaign. Lots of people have been in touch with us and asked us what they can do and who they can speak to to help support the campaign. Some of the most important people you can talk to are mental health professionals and commissioners and these guides will give you some tips on how to explain the campaign to them. You can find the guides in the 'Resources' section.
Over 250 MPs now supporting our campaign
22 July 2010
Thanks to everyone who's emailed their MP to ask them to sign up to You Need To Know. We’ve had a fantastic response so far, with over 250 MPs now supporting our campaign. Find out which MPs here. Even if your MP has already pledged their support, please do still email them: the more emails they get, the more pressure they can put on the Government to change mental health services for children with autism! Email your MP here.
Young Campaigner talks to Ruby Wax for BBC documentary
20 July 2010
Ruby Wax has interviewed one of our Young Campaigners Group, Jacob Denness, about what it's like to have autism and why it's so important to reduce stigma surrounding the condition. The film is part of a series for the BBC's mental health awareness campaign, 'Headroom'. Watch Jacob’s interview here.
Young Campaigner writes about campaign launch
12 July 2010
Hollie, one of our Young Campaigners Group, has written a great personal account of her visit to the House of Commons for the launch of our You Need To Know campaign. "It was a really exciting experience being able to go to Parliament,", says Hollie. "I really enjoyed the fact that MPs and ministers wanted to talk to me, and when I spoke they were really interested." Read more.
MPs debate You Need To Know campaign
6 July 2010
On Wednesday 7 July between 2.30 and 4pm there will be a debate in Westminster Hall on CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Services) and autism. This debate is a great opportunity to raise important issues about mental health and autism, as highlighted by our recent You Need to Know campaign. Watch the debate live.
Video blog about campaign launch
22 June 2010
Watch this great vlog by Ralph, a member of our Young Campaigners Group, about his visit to the House of Commons for the launch of the You Need To Know campaign.
Take part in our Northern Ireland mental health survey
15 June 2010
We're conducting research into mental health in children and young people with autism in Northern Ireland. Taking part is easy. If you're a parent of a child with autism who is aged 21 or younger or a person with autism aged 16 to 21, and live in Northern Ireland, please fill in our online survey. Help us make good mental health for children with autism a reality.
Which MPs are supporting the campaign?
09 June 2010
Find out which MPs are supporting You Need To Know. If you haven’t done so already, email your MP to tell them about the campaign. The more emails they get, the more pressure they can put on the Government to change mental health services for children with autism! We’ve had a fantastic response so far, with over 2,200 people contacting their MP!
Parliamentary launch a huge success
09 June 2010
On Tuesday 7 June the You Need To Know campaign was officially launched in Parliament to a packed audience and over 100 parliamentarians. The launch was a great success. Attending the event were the Government’s Minister for Care Services Paul Burstow and Minister for Children and Families Sarah Teather, as well as representatives of our Young Campaigners Group. Read the full story here.
Follow this campaign on Twitter
08 June 2010
You can see all our latest tweets about the You Need To Know campaign at twitter.com/_YouNeedToKnow_ and follow us @_YouNeedToKnow_ with the hashtag #YNTK
Boyzone singer nominated as first Happiness Hero
07 June 2010
Singer/actor Keith Duffy has been nominated as our first Happiness Hero. He was nominated by Louise, who has Asperger syndrome. She loves listening to Boyzone ...loudly! Read more about Louise's nomination here.