Monday 9 September 2024
As The Lampard Inquiry begins public hearings (9th September 2024), the Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) has announced it hopes the inquiry will help highlight the continued failure to support autistic people with their mental health.
The Inquiry is examining the deaths of over 2,000 people who received mental health inpatient care in Essex – a significant number are understood to have been autistic and many of whom are thought to have died by suicide.
Tom Purser, CEO of the Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) said: “The Lampard Inquiry is a landmark moment – the first ever Statutory Inquiry in the UK to scrutinise mental health services.
“It is vital that this inquiry addresses how many of the people who died in Essex were autistic, and to what extent failures to meet their autism-related needs contributed to their deaths.”
The facts
- Poor mental health – 8 in 10 autistic people suffer from mental health problems such as severe anxiety and depression.
- Reduced life expectancy – Autistic adults die more than 16 years younger than non-autistic adults; this gap increases to 30 years autistic in people with a learning disability.
- Suicide – Autistic people are at least seven times more likely to die by suicide than non-autistic people.
- Is the top cause of death amongst autistic adults. 1
- The most common category of death in autistic children without a learning disability2 is ‘suicide or deliberate self-inflicted harm’ – accounting for 35% of deaths.
Tom continued: “Every preventable death is one too many. The statistics speak for themselves and show a complete failure to prioritise and safeguard a vulnerable, at-risk community.
“Whilst it is critical that the inquiry learns what went wrong in Essex, we believe that what is uncovered will reflect the picture nationally. These findings will likely have significant implications for local authorities, the NHS and other services both in Essex and across the country. We’re keen to work with the new Government to make the changes needed to help improve the lives of all autistic people and stop further preventable deaths. Every day we delay, more lives are lost.”
The Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) exists to make a big difference; by funding and commissioning world-leading research, delivering projects which directly impact the lives of autistic people, and campaigning to achieve change.
- The Learning from deaths: Children with a learning disability and autistic children report, published by the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), analyses the deaths of all children aged between 4 and 17 in England between April 2019 and March 2022.
- Data from Learning from Lives and Deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR)