Olive’s hope for autistic children
Cox Green: Teenager wants to raise more awareness
A young Maidenhead woman is calling for more understanding of autism and recognition that it presents ‘very differently’ in females.
Olive McGuckian from
Cox Green is making the plea as she said the signs of her autism were not ‘picked up’, leading to her not receiving a diagnosis of autism until the age of 16.
The 18-year-old was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at the age of seven and believes she has ‘been largely neglected by the
NHS and mental health care system’ and is calling for change.
Miss McGuckian also said that teachers and staff in schools need to be trained more in recognising autism.
She said: “I just want to talk about and get the word out about autism in girls specifically, but in younger people, and how, when you don’t get diagnosed soon enough or you get your symptoms missed, that it leads to more problems down the line.
“Schools and staff aren’t really educated enough because, now that we look back and I understand about autism, it’s really obvious that I was autistic when I was younger, but nobody picked up on it because I didn’t fit your stereotypical presentation.”
Miss McGuckian, who was ‘bullied quite badly’ during her school years, said that her mental health ‘got quite bad’ and she was later medically signed out of school.
She also shared experiences of her self-harming and suicide attempts.
“I think that a lot of that wouldn’t have happened if we had just realised I was autistic sooner and got me a bit of support,” she said.
She said previous research on autism was mainly done on boys and it was ‘predominantly considered’ a ‘boysonly condition’.
“Naturally women tend to mask their autism more, so they put up a façade and act the way that other people are to fit in,” she said.
She added: “All these girls who are autistic aren’t meeting the standard representation that people are expecting so they’re not getting diagnosed until much much later and that’s causing a lot of problems for a lot of people and their mental health, like me for example.
“I just want people to understand autism more and [for] more people to recognise that it’s not a young guy who can’t make eye contact and doesn’t understand emotions, it’s a very wide spectrum.
“So many girls are flying under the radar and that’s causing a pretty widespread problem for a lot of people.”
She added: “If I can prevent the things I went through from happening to other people, I think that would be an amazing achievement for myself.
“I just want autistic children to have the childhoods they deserve. I don’t want them to be bullied and unsupported in schools and I don’t want them to have mental health problems.”
Miss McGuckian said that autism is a ‘massive part’ of her identity and something that she’s ‘really proud of’.
In a statement, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It is well recognised that autism can present differently particularly when girls and women mask or camouflage difference or difficulties.
“This can affect both the likelihood of being referred for an assessment and also potentially the outcome of an assessment if the differences are not well understood.
“In terms of supporting referrals for assessment, the Autism Assessment Team provide free training to schools and other settings which includes training on how autism can present in girls and masking and camouflaging.
“They also have an open referral system which enables families or young people themselves (if they are 16 years or older) to refer directly for an autism assessment.”
It addded the autism process within the Trust will see all assessments consider information from a range of sources that will be ‘carefully reviewed by at least two clinicians’ before a ‘diagnostic decision is reached’.
It said that there is also the opportunity to discuss ‘complex assessments including in a multi-disciplinary team meeting’.
To find out more about autism visit: nhs.uk/ conditions/autism