"Autism and Mental Health awareness"

My son was brought into the accident and emergency department with low mood having attempted to harm himself. He is undiagnosed autism and has noise aversion.

The whole experience (19+ hours) was overwhelming negatively affecting his mental health that was already fragile. Promises of quieter room, being seen too within the 5 hours or any other support was not available.

Treatment was delivered in a 8 seater cubicle behind the main nurses station over night. Sleep deprivation makes auditory issues worse and my son had a panic attack. But he was left alone by nursing staff.

It led me to thinking that staff are unaware of this disability. Simply providing a side room or noticing the signs of nervousness would have gone a long way.

We arrived in the evening with the above condition. The mental health team were not made aware of this issue until the following afternoon - 19 hours later - when the treatment to sort the toxicity was completed. This should have been done earlier rather than the last measure before discharge so that any support could be provided during this time. They may have also been able to assist with informing staff of the particular patient care for this patient that was lacking due to little outwardly facing symptoms