Taekwondo king Thomas’ film proves smash hit
ANEW film by a Taekwondo champion and community coach aims to educate the public on the relationship between autism and mental health.
Thomas Henley, 23, won gold as part of Team England at the Taekwondo Commonwealth Championships in 2014, and has gone on to coach up-and-coming youngsters at the Horizon Taekwondo Academy in Rochdale.
Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at age ten, he has also been active raising awareness of issues faced by autistic people on his YouTube channel Aspergers Growth.
The channel is now the platform for a new documentary film, ‘Aspergers in Society’, in which Thomas seeks to shine a light on perceptions of autism and its related challenges, especially concerning mental health issues like anxiety and depression, through conversations with both autistic young people like himself as well as community and healthcare professionals.
Thomas said: “A lot of other autism documentaries don’t focus on the science or the comorbid conditions, whilst others don’t really engage with the autistic community or make sure the autistic voice is heard - my documentary combines both of these aspects.”
He said he was “quite staggered” by the reception to the film so far, which has gained 1,000 views in its first week compared to the 50-80 he would normally expect in the same period for a new vlog.
Thomas made the film as part of a Science Communication project for his degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Manchester, and said it took more than 300 hours to complete due to him starting out with practically no filming or editing skills.
As part of the Manchester Leadership Programme
he completed while a student, he completed 60 hours of taekwondo coaching of both autistic and non-autistic pupils - some of whom have gone on to win competition golds - under the guidance of Rochdale taekwondo master Rooji Karim.
Thomas’ decision to make the film was partially inspired by his own experience with mental health, having been diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety and a dissociative disorder at 14.
He said: “In the process of the project I came across some shocking statistics that show one-inthree autistic people also have a severe mental health condition, and bullying rates are very high too. This is something that there is a lot of research on but a lot of people don’t know about it.”
Thomas added that lockdown in particular has been a potentially very challenging time for autistic people, who might find the uncertainty and disruption to their daily routines especially unsettling.
Currently furloughed from his job as a special education teaching assistant, he said: “It has taken quite a toll on my mental health, however the last few weeks I’ve worked on focusing on creating a new routine for myself and that’s helped me feel much better.”
Thomas added that he hopes the documentary will raise awareness of the subject matter and the steps needed to address it.
He said: “There need to be specifically trained mental health practitioners for autistic people who really understand the condition. The support that is specialised is very often privatised, and with the low full-time employment rate for autistic people, which is 16 per cent, it’s extra difficult for them to access that - that’s something we really need to change.”
Thomas added that education for children and adults was also essential to reduce stigma around the condition, and said that this was a message well received at the schools he has visited as a speaker, including Rochdale’s Redfield Secondary School.
He said: “Children need to know that autism is not a stigmatised thing so that they can better integrate with autistic people. That will helpfully reduce the bullying a lot of autistic people face, even adults if that stigma makes it into the workplace.”