To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his suicide prevention strategy will examine a potential link between neurodiversity and suicide; and what steps he plans to take to help prevents suicides linked to neurodiversity.
Answered on
5 July 2022
We will engage with those in the suicide prevention sector on the priorities for the suicide prevention plan.
We are investing £70 million to improve community support for autistic people and people with a learning disability, including the capability and availability of crisis support. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Recovery Plan allocated £500 million in 2021/22 to address the impact of the pandemic on mental health, including for autistic people. We also provided £3.5 million in 2021/22 to assist local systems to identify autistic children and young people on waiting lists who may be at risk of crisis. From March 2022, we are extending the Learning from Lives and Deaths – People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People programme to understand how we can improve suicide prevention.