Most autistic people feel isolated

A new report says only 4 per cent of autistic Australians feel their fellow countrymen know how to properly support them.

Gabrielle Hall, who is autistic herself and also has two autistic children, is an advocate for the Autism community. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Only 4 per cent of Australians with autism feel others know how to properly support them and more than half feel socially isolated, a report released today shows.

Research commissioned by Victoria’s peak autism body, Amaze, into the experiences of autistic people found 52 per cent felt socially isolated, 48 per cent had been avoided or shunned and 59 per cent had been described as “weird”.

The report comes a week after an autistic teenager was assaulted outside a Melbourne high school in an attack that shocked the city’s autistic community.

Melbourne mother Gabrielle Hall, 46, has two autistic children and was diagnosed with the condition herself as an adult. She said autistic children were often at the mercy of bullies.

“The thing about that poor lad who’s been violently assaulted is that he might not have known the signs of being teased,” she said.

“Autistic people are very socially vulnerable and targets for predatory, bullying behaviour.”

Amaze will use today’s research by ANU and the Australian Catholic University to launch the Do One Thing for Autism campaign. The peak Victorian autism body’s chief executive Fiona Sharkie said the findings showed there was an urgent need to increase people’s understanding of the condition.

“Autistic people want people to know they find social situations difficult, that they need time to take in information, and they want them to understand meltdowns,” she said. “It would be great to have quiet spaces in sporting venues, restaurants, workplaces.”