CO-CHAIRS
The Intellectual Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Special Interest Group was proposed to address the urgent need to reduce shockingly high suicide rates among people with intellectual disability and autistic people.
This special interest group aims to promote the visibility of these groups within suicide prevention by promoting an international, multi-disciplinary network and facilitating the sharing of good practices. We aim to support the development of specialised and community-based good practices in suicide prevention, intervention, treatment, support, and postvention. We aim to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disability and autistic people and consider the role of co-occurring conditions, such as ADHD.
Specific activities include:
- Creating a shared platform to allow file sharing, meetings, discuss and share information, plan activities.
- Meet quarterly to discuss the development of the network and activities.
- Recruit experts, practitioners, policymakers, students, and researchers working in the field to inform them about the network among IASP members.
- Prioritise developing partnerships and extending SIG governance to include at least one co-chair from an organisation in LMIC.
- Recruit people with intellectual disability and autistic people with lived experience of suicidal thoughts and behaviours following good inclusive participatory methods.
- Propose workshops and symposia at each IASP World Congress.
- Produce a position paper for submission to Crisis or another suicide journal.
- Propose an IASP webinar.
These activities are our preliminary thoughts. We welcome proposals from new members of activities for the SIG.
We have tried to choose terms that are easy to use and reflect the published preferences of people with intellectual disability and autistic people (American Psychological Association, 2021; Kenny et al., 2016). These terms can be changed if needed for inclusivity and in line with cultural preference. We recognise that language preferences vary between national contexts and may vary over time.
If you would like to join this SIG, please fill in the contact form below:
