ORCID

Abstract

Autistic people demonstrate poor outcomes on objective measures of wellbeing, yet research centring lived experience provides a more nuanced picture. There is growing support for person-centred, holistic and community approaches to enhancing wellbeing for autistic people. Social prescribing may be one such approach. This qualitative study explored the concept of wellbeing for autistic adults – including barriers and self-management – and the implications of this for modifying social prescribing. It involved semi-structured interviews with 21 autistic adults in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data supports research suggesting that self-determination may underlie many aspects of wellbeing for autistic people. The COVID-19 pandemic provided new opportunities to develop wellbeing strategies but also had negative impacts. Social prescribing could promote self-determination by signposting autistic people to peer support opportunities building on intrinsic interests.

Publication Date

2023-10-12

Event

Disability & Society

Publication Title

Disability and Society

Volume

39

Issue

12

ISSN

0968-7599

Acceptance Date

2023-09-16

Deposit Date

2023-12-10

Embargo Period

2023-10-13

Funding

The work was supported by National Institute for Health and Social Care Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula - Infrastructure Grant.

Keywords

autism, wellbeing, self-determination, social prescribing

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First Page

3283

Last Page

3311

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